


SkeleFrisk: A deal with a demon

by HufflepuffKat



Series: SkeleFrisk [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Big Brother Papyrus, Big Brother Sans, Child Frisk, Contracts, Dadster, Demons, Evil Chara, Female Frisk, Frisk Needs A Hug, Gaster is the Skelebros father, Gen, Good W. D. Gaster, Pacifist Frisk, Papyrus is NOT completely oblivious, Protective Papyrus, Protective Sans, Relatable Villain, Skelefrisk, Skeleton Frisk, Skeleton family, Sloth Demon - Freeform, The Void, Worried Papyrus, but mostly because she's lazy, deal with a demon, redeemable Chara, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-04-05 02:01:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 27,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14033727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffKat/pseuds/HufflepuffKat
Summary: Frisk has watched Chara helplessly through so many genocide routes, having to deal with the guilt alone. She is tired and is willing to do anything to make this never-ending cycle come to an end, even if it means making a deal with a demon. Frisk will be stripped of her DETERMINATION, powers and humanity. But no cost is too much to end this, right?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I am well aware that there are different interpretations of who is responsible for the Genocide run in Undertale, and I respect those who follow interpretations different to my own. However, for the sake of the story, I will follow my own interpretation.

Sans truly hated Frisk, and Frisk accepted that. This was all her fault after all, just not in the way that he thought. The power of RESET was Frisk's and Frisk's alone, although she could only reset at the 'End'… The rest, however, Chara had all the power.

Chara's actions were also Frisk's fault, but Frisk truly had never meant for any of this. During the first timeline, Chara had remained a quiet observer all the way to the end, never interfering. After Frisk had brought the monsters back to the surface, she noticed that she had access to an option she had never had before, RESET. She had honestly lasted longer than what was expected in avoiding the temptation, but eventually, curiosity got the better of her and she RESET.

That was Frisk's sin, the sin that had caused so much misery. While Frisk returned back to the beginning with her memories fully intact, Chara's did not. Whether it was because of Chara's strange connection to Frisk or something else entirely, Chara's memory seemed to have become corrupted, unable to tell what was her own memories and what was Frisk's. Frisk reasoned that Chara must have seen the monsters' attacks on them as a painful betrayal, unable to tell that they were actually aimed at Frisk rather than their now dead friend. Chara took control over Frisk's body to get revenge in the form of the first genocide run for their so-called betrayal.

Frisk was given no choice again and again just to wait everything out and RESET at the End hoping for the chance that Chara might give the monsters MERCY in the next run, but things only got worse with each RESET as Chara got more and more demented. Frisk's self-loathing of herself for causing all of this began to creep into Chara and Chara's hatred shifted from the monsters onto Frisk herself, until the point that this was all one big game to torment Frisk. Chara would even give control back to Frisk from time to time, allowing her to SPARE some monsters, only to take over again and dust the rest. One time even, they had allowed Frisk to go all the way to the End, letting Frisk SPARE everyone and bring them back to the surface, only to kill them all there, forcing Frisk to RESET once again.

It was sometimes easy to forget that Frisk was just a kid, only twelve years old, and this was taking a toll on her. As horrible as it was, seeing her friends die over and over wasn't the worst thing anymore, but Sans no longer even hidden contempt towards her, even when she was in control, that, was the worst. She wanted more than anything to plead for his forgiveness but she still hadn't been given the chance to give Sans an explanation.

Chara had made it again all the way to the End of a genocide run, and the child and the 'demon' stared at each other in the pitch black darkness staring at each other; Chara in a mad glee and Frisk with cold, dead eyes. She was taking her time to RESET, she was so tired, and didn't know what Chara would do on the next run.

It was sick, Frisk had gotten to the point that she almost dreaded the times that Chara let her have control because she hated letting her hopes only to have them crushed again. Chara's cruelty was bound only by her imagination, and she had quite the imagination, she would always take over once Frisk developed any sense of security; while she was saying goodbye to Toriel, halfway through her first encounter, when she was sparing Asgore, Chara had even once allowed Frisk to take over mid-way through a genocide run and SPARE Papyrus, only to stab him in the back while he was hugging the wailing child.

Frisk slowly raised her hand, bringing the RESET button into existence, she stood a while, not pressing it just staring. Chara chuckled sadistically. Frisk moved her hand to press it when she suddenly sensed another presence here when it had only ever just been the two of them. Frisk looked up to Chara, who was also disturbed by the presence, this shouldn't have been possible, all of reality had been ERASED, only they existed now, but still, the other presence was undeniable, they both felt a thousand eyes stare at them.

Suddenly, out from the darkness, a smooth, feminine voice spoke, drawing both children's attention, "I have a proposition for you, child." They had a human figure, but they were obviously not human, their skin was grey, and not as in a sickly dead-body grey, but an actual grey. Their eyes instead of having a colour like blue or brown were black, so you couldn't see their pupils - or maybe they were all pupil - surrounded by the glowing whites of their eyes. She -at least Frisk thought that they were female- had blood-red hair that was long and messy, like they hadn't bushed their hair after waking up, but they wore a formal business suit, only with a red undershirt instead of a white one.

Seeing Frisk's stare the figure grinned, revealing her black teeth and making Frisk's eyes widen in fear, "What, child? Have you never seen a demon before?" The demon asked. Frisk's eyes unconsciously went to Chara. Although she knew that Chara wasn't actually a demon, after everything she had begun to call her one in her head. Chara had remained quiet as always, but now a jealous snarl was on their face, like a child who saw someone stealing their favourite toy.

The demon continued talking, "Well you have no need to fear, I'm not going to hurt you, after all, I did come here to strike a deal with you." Frisk eyes went back to the demon wide in fear, she had heard stories of those who had made deals with demons, and they all ended badly for the fool who had excepted the deal.

The demon chuckled, "Relax, for I am a demon of mercy." She spoke smoothly, like a mother comforting a child. "I work as a demon under the great sin of Sloth, I free man of the harsh trials of this world, for a price of course. And now I am offering that to you, to take you away from this never-ending cycle of torment, so you never have to see your friends die again."

The words were exactly what Frisk wanted to hear, and although she knew that was what the demon was counting on, there was not much strength of will left in Frisk, and so she let her worries fly away, and listened contently to the demon, letting them become her saviour.

The demon smirked, knowing that she had already won, but continued, her tone never changing. "Your problem lies in that human soul of yours, its power leaves you with too much responsibility for a young child like you, it gives you the strength to destroy monster kind over and over again, while allowing you to be controlled by the corrupt," The demon sent a glance to Chara, allowing them to see her smirk. "I just want to take that soul off your hands, I'll even give you a discount and give you a brand new one, only it'll be a monster soul, free from your current soul's power and problems."

Frisk hesitated unsure, looking down, the deal sounded so good, but still, her soul was needed to free the monsters wasn't it, and more importantly, with a monster soul she wouldn't be able to SAVE anymore, with her human body it was very likely that she would be killed in the underground before being able to make up her past mistakes to all the monsters she had hurt in previous timelines.

The demon sensed this and continued. "A monster soul, would, of course, have to come with a matching monster body, you could be any monster type you wanted, Froggit, Fire Elemental… Skeleton," Frisk looked up at that, causing the demon to chuckle once again, "Skeleton it is. Come on Frisky, what do you say?"

Chara watched in anger and horror as Frisk nodded.

"Deal."


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk starts once again in the underground as a skeleton and realises how different things have become...

It was the strangest feeling, Frisk realised when she woke up in the flowerbed. She didn't feel like herself at all, although she hadn't for a long time, this was even more so. The first thing she noticed was that she was still wearing her purple and blue striped sweater, but it was now several sizes too big for her, and it now sagged loosely over her hands.

Her hands, she raised her hands up to see them and was still shocked to see the little, connected bones that were now her hands. She stared at her hands with a new fascination, she had seen skeleton hands so many times before, but there seemed to be so many things she had not noticed before, like the way the light draft in the cavern brushed right through them with a tickling sensation, and just how light they were, one really doesn't know the weight of their own arms until they become twenty times lighter.

Frisk yawned, that was another thing that felt strange, she felt really tired. Really, really tired. She had never felt tired at the beginning of a RESET before, but she felt like she hadn't slept in days. Maybe it was because of the soul transfer? Maybe it had taken up a lot of her energy and she would get better? She hoped so.

Frisk moved on to the next room, still consciously aware of how weird her body felt. When she saw the empty patch of grass she stared at it sadly. Chara tore Flowey to shreds in the previous run and now Flowey was hiding from Chara. Frisk sighed and continued on feeling disappointed. She knew that erasing everyone's memories of what Chara had done in the previous was not offered in the demon's contract, but a part of her had hoped that she could truly forget about what had happened.

When Frisk entered the larger room with the staircase in it she felt herself somehow smiling when she saw Toriel coming down the stairs. Toriel paused when she saw Frisk and gave her a curious look, filled with confusion, before smiling back at her and giving Frisk a small wave. Frisk stopped walking and giggled, waving back at Toriel and waited as Toriel walked closer.

And continued walking to the next room.

Frisk felt a pang of disappointment and rejection in her chest. Why would Toriel just continue walking? She had helped Frisk in the past RESETS, and had helped her through the ruins, given her a place to sleep and pie to eat. Frisk considered Toriel to be her mother. Frisk made a small whine when the realisation dawned on her.

Frisk wasn't human anymore. Toriel didn't need to worry about her anymore.

Frisk had to try hard to stop herself from feeling regret about the deal. The pain of losing Toriel as a mother was worth it, so much worth it if it meant never had to see her die again.

Frisk took her time moving through the ruins, still overcome with melancholy. Everything felt different. The puzzles and monsters she encountered were the same but, the monsters were not attacking her anymore. Upon seeing her they had entirely different reactions, mostly confusion, either giving a wave or completely ignoring her.

Except for Napstablook, his reaction was pretty much the same as it always was. It was almost relieving to see him sleeping on the path in her way, it filled her with a proper sense of familiarity.

"Escuse me?" Frisk realised that this was the first time she had tried speaking as a skeleton, and as a result, she hadn't gotten used to her new mouth yet. It was odd, she didn't have a tongue or lips, but she still had made sounds that required both. She supposed that it was just magic and she would need more practice to start talking properly again.

Napstablook started crying again as usual, and Frisk quickly jumped back to avoid the acid tears. Her eye-sockets widened when she saw her stats.

**LV: 1 HP 1/1**

This was certainly new, she had expected her stats to be different now that she was a monster, but she hadn't expected them to be  _that_  low, in fact, monsters seemed to have a higher HP to humans, the only monster that had HP that low was… Sans. She still wasn't sure how she was going to tell him what happened, in fact, she was pretty sure that he wasn't going to believe her and call her a dirty lair and-

"…oh… i'm sorry… i didn't notice that you were just a kid… i'm sorry…. i didn't mean to scare you… oh no…" Frisk hadn't realised that tears had begun to fall down her cheek, but Napstablook had and was now looking at her worriedly. Frisk felt guilty as it wasn't his fault, but she couldn't think of an excuse.

"I'sawight. I'm okay. Thangk-you." She gave him a forced skeletal grin. It must have been adorable because Frisk could have sworn that she heard a quiet 'awww'.

"… if you don't mind me asking… kid, why are you in the ruins alone?" Frisk was surprised that Napstablook had asked her that, he hadn't asked her before. Was it because she cried? Or was it possible that he hadn't noticed that she was a kid before? She had never known Napstablook for a long in the same run through, so she couldn't be sure.

Frisk was unsure what to say, so she shrugged, a yawn managed to escape her though.

"did you get lost somehow?" Napstablook asked. Frisk, still unsure decided it would be best for her to nod.

Napstablook looked down on Frisk, considering for a moment, "… if you want, i can take you to the exit with me…" Frisk already knew the way to the exit, but she figured she could use the company so she excepted.

Napstablook was pretty quiet was he lead the way through the ruins, he seemed to shy to say anything, and Frisk didn't know what to say. Eventually, the arrived in front Toriel's house. The two stood in silence for a few moments, the awkward silence had seemly got to Napstablook.

"… i leave through the walls… but the exit to the ruins is in here… i'm sure if you ask the lady that lives here she will let you out…" Before Frisk could thank him, he had faded away, and she was alone again.

Frisk walked up to the door, from the light coming out of the windows she could tell that Toriel was home, but the pit growing in her chest was making it difficult to just move her hand and knock. She wasn't ready to see Toriel again. She wasn't ready for Toriel to just let her go and be someone else's problems. Frisk knew that this wasn't Toriel's fault but it felt like she was being abandoned by her parents again.  _But no, this is worth it._

Suddenly filled with determination, she forced her hand to knock on the door. She heard Toriel's footsteps and instantly regretted it. She wasn't ready! What was she going to say? She didn't know how to-.

"Hello, my child, what brings you to my door?" Toriel's calm voice relaxes Frisk's anxiety like the sound of calm rain. Frisk looks up to see Toriel's kind concerned eyes, and suddenly she could think clearly again.

"Ah, ma-mish, could you pleesth let me leave the wuins?" Frisk asks calmly, with a pleading look in her eyes. She had almost called Toriel 'mom' out of habit, but she knew that would only freak her out.

"My child? Are you sure?" Toriel looked around behind Frisk. "I don't see your parents with you, don't you have a guardian that you would be leaving behind?"

Frisk was almost tempted to answer 'you', but she knew better, she swallowed down the imaginary lump in her imaginary through and answered Toriel truthfully as possible under the circumstances, "I don' haf any parents any more, bu' I know somebod-dy who lives in Snowdin."

Frisk felt a glimmer of hope when Toriel's eyes were filled with a familiar concern, but pushed it away as Toriel nodded, "I'm so sorry, my child. Of course, I'll let you through."

Toriel stepped back and let Frisk in, again, this felt so different. There had never been a time that Toriel's house did not smell of butterscotch and cinnamon, but now Frisk could only smell smoke from Toriel's fireplace.

"My child, are you alright?" Toriel pulled Frisk from her thoughts, Frisk opened her mouth to reply, but only a tired yawn escaped. Toriel hummed.

"My child, it is getting quite late, perhaps it would be best if you rested before leaving?" Frisk found herself nodding and being led to her room. She reminded herself in her head that this wasn't really her room anymore but really didn't seem to make much of a difference. Frisk nodded in appreciation as lightly pushed her to the bed and tucked her in. That hadn't before, but it was nice. Toriel this time didn't even make it out of the room before Frisk had fallen asleep.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk leaves the ruins.

When Frisk woke up she was still drowsy, while this wouldn't sound too concerning, was usually very much a morning person, and on her Frist run before she RESET and before she started all of this mess, she would join Papyrus on his morning runs. The only time Frisk ever had trouble getting out of bed in the past was when she was sick, and Frisk certainly didn't feel ill. She forced herself out of bed, unused to this heavy, dizzy feeling and stumbled to the door.

What was happening? Frisk searched her mind for answers. Could this be the demon's fault? Frisk shuddered, suddenly recalling how the demon had called herself a Sloth demon, and the possibility of this all being one big coincidence just went down.

This conclusion for some reason troubled Frisk, and she felt like she should have figured out something, like she was so close to solving a puzzle and she was only missing one piece, it scratched at her mind but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't figure out what exactly was bothering her.

Frisk gave up and sighed, opening the door and heading towards the living room to say goodbye to Toriel. Toriel was in her usual spot in her chair reading a book, looking up when she heard Frisk. Toriel smiled warmly.

"Did you sleep well, my child?" She asked. Frisk nodded in reply, hiding her drowsiness, not wanting to risk yawning when she opened her jaw and worrying Toriel.

Toriel closed her book and went to the kitchen coming out with a small basket and placing it in Frisk's tiny hands.

"It's not a pie or anything, but I thought that you would appreciate something to eat on the way to your friends," Toriel said, a blush just barely visible through her fur. Frisk looked into the basket to see sandwiches inside, and Frisk found herself touched, she gently placed the basket and hugged Toriel tightly.

"My child?!" Toriel said in shock, uncertain of what to say.

"Thank you," Frisk said, tears escaping her eyes, she didn't want to say goodbye to Toriel. She no longer had a reason to, she no longer had the DETERMINATION to, but she knew that Toriel did not wish for this Frisk to stay. She was scared, she realised, of what would happen once she got to Snowdin, she was scared of what Sans would do to her if he didn't believe her, she was scared of dying for real, she didn't want to go, she didn't, she didn't, she didn't want to.

Toriel stood patiently waiting for Frisk to let go. She looked down at the young skeleton, she like all the other monsters in the ruins had been troubled by her sudden appearance, where had she been hiding? – Where had she been hidden? The child did not seem too upset by the loss of her parents and seemed so grateful for something as simple as sandwiches, so Toriel had come to the conclusion that whoever the child's parents were must have been abusive, this troubled Toriel and pulled at her motherly instincts, and she could only pray that the ones that the child was going to would treat her better.

Frisk finally forced herself to let go of Toriel. Sniffing, she picked the basket again and forced her jaw into a grin. Toriel forced a grin back, trying to hide her concern for the child.

"The exit to the ruins is this way, my child." She said, leading Frisk to the basement and towards the door, and Frisk was forced back to reality and the differences between this run and the others.

Looking at Toriel leading her to the exit with a smile on her face, suddenly, the differences didn't seem so bad. She didn't have to fight Toriel. She knew with certainty that Toriel wasn't going to die here. Things were different but that wasn't so bad because that also means that different good things could happen.

Toriel leads Frisk all the way this time, "Be careful, my child." She said in farewell, opening the large door for her. Frisk nodded and stepped out, as Toriel closed the door, Frisk shouted on impulse.

"Goodbye mom, I lofe you!" Frisk saw Toriel's final look of shock before the door finally closed.

Frisk looked down, feeling bad. She hadn't meant to say that, it came out without warning, she hadn't wanted to burden Toriel with that but… Frisk sighed, it was too late now, the damage was done, it was best she moved on.

It was only then that Frisk noticed that the cold wasn't bothering her. Despite having a sweater, Frisk was usually a shivering mess in Snowdin, but although she could tell it was cold, the only thing that made her uncomfortable was the wind whistling through her bones, and then she vaguely remembered Papyrus mentioning that Skeletons weren't bothered by the cold in a previous run.

She walked down the path towards Snowdin, the familiar feeling of being watched shivering up her spine. She realised things were once again different when she didn't hear the stick snap like usual, and she turned around to check to see that it was still intact. She frowned slightly, having a bad feeling about this.

Turning back forward she almost crashed skulls with Sans, startled, she fell back into the snow, eye sockets wide in surprise and fear. Sans chuckled.

"sorry, i didn't mean to  _scare you out of your skin_." Frisk relaxed a little. Sans was offering his hand to help Frisk up. Frisk hesitantly took the hand and her eye sockets filled with confusion when his had didn't have a whoopee cushion in it. Sans was watching her carefully.

"i thought my bro and i were the only skeletons in the underground." He said in a relaxed tone, but his eye sockets when dark, "but tibia honest, the sweater of yours is awfully familiar." Fear pulsed in Frisk's soul, she had been recognised already, she scolded herself in the back of her head for believing that Sans wouldn't notice that she was wearing the exact same clothes.

"which leaves me wondering, how exactly did you become a skeleton? i wasn't aware that humans could that." He said pointedly.

Frisk opened her jaw, but no words came out, she desperately wanted to explain everything to him, beg for his forgiveness, but the look in his eye sockets scared her so much that she couldn't force the words out.

The two remained like that for several moments, Sans glaring and Frisk with her jaw opening and closing in silence.

The tense air was interrupted by the sound of Papyrus' voice. "SANS! I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE ABANDONED YOUR POST AGAIN! WHAT IF A HUMAN WERE TO PASS BY?" Papyrus' voice was coming closer and Sans began to sweat anxiously.

Frisk let her guard down when she saw Papyrus, knowing that she was safe for now. Sans wouldn't do anything that would upset Papyrus after all. Looking to Sans Frisk confirmed her theory as Sans eye-lights came back and his smile relaxed.

"sorry bro, i got distracted." Sans apologised, but Papyrus wasn't paying attention, he had caught sight of Frisk and his eye sockets had widened.

"HELLO FELLOW SKELETON! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS; FUTURE MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD! IT IS A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU!" Papyrus introduced himself and Frisk shyly waved back.

"'m Fr- Frisk" She replied carefully, she didn't want to pronounce her own name wrong and have Papyrus call her that forever.

Papyrus looked absorbed in Frisk's existence. "I HAVE NOT MET ANOTHER SKELETON BESIDES MY BROTHER, WHERE DO YOU LIVE? DO HAVE OTHER FELLOW SKELETON FAMILY MEMBERS?" He questioned curiously. Frisk shook her head, answering both questions.

Papyrus looked troubled for a moment, before his face brightened again, "DO NOT WORRY, YOUNG FRISK, FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE AN INGENIOUS IDEA! YOU CAN STAY WITH US! NYEH, HEH HEH!"

Sans looked at Papyrus with worried eye sockets, "are you sure that's a good idea bro. we don't kno-"

"SANS! WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS CHILD TO GO WITHOUT A PLACE TO STAY. THEY'RE BARELY OLDER THAN A BABYBONES!" If Frisk didn't know better, she could have sworn that she saw Sans wince. "BESIDES, AS FELLOW SKELETONS WE ARE ALREADY PRACTICALLY FAMILY."

Sans looked down, knowing there was no way to persuade his brother out of this now. "sure, bro. you really are the coolest, you know."

"NYEH, HEH, HEH!"


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The skeleton brothers take Frisk home. Sans isn't happy.

The entire walk to the Skeleton brother's house, Sans didn't take his eye sockets off Frisk. Frisk could understand, but it made her too nervous to leave Papyrus' side once she arrived at 'her new home'. She could only imagine what this must have looked like to Sans, but until she could find some way to prove to him that she wasn't the one who killed Papyrus in the previous timelines, she knew Sans wouldn't believe her story and might even attack her pre-emptively to rid the possibility of her from hurting Papyrus. So until she could think of something, she stuck to Papyrus like glue.

Papyrus was ecstatic from the attention, almost making Frisk feel less guilty for using him as a human/skeleton shield. Papyrus showed her the kitchen and the living room, doing his best to make her feel welcome, then eventually moved onto his bedroom.

"I DO NOT USUALLY ALLOW PEOPLE INTO MY ROOM, BUT CONSIDERING THAT WE DO NOT HAVE A ROOM FOR YOU YET, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SHARE MY ROOM WITH YOU FOR THE TIME BEING." Papyrus offered with a wide grin, beaming with the excitement of having his new friend/new sibling stay with them. Papyrus had really been pushing that Frisk was being adopted into their family, and Sans was struggling to find reasons to deny it.

Sans narrowed his eye sockets at Papyrus, "papyrus, i don't think that's a good idea." Frisk found herself nodding in agreement, as much as she was afraid of being alone around Sans, she knew she would  _really_  be pushing her luck by accepting Papyrus' offer, knowing that there was no way Sans would be happy with her being alone with him without Sans' supervision.

"I-I could a'ways shleep on the couch." She said hurriedly.

"NONSENSE! I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO SHARE MY BED WITH YOU, IT WOULD BE JUST LIKE SLEEPOVER… WHICH I HAVE MOST CERTAINLY HAVE EXPERIENCED BEFORE." Sans began to sweat, Frisk knew that Sans couldn't deny Papyrus now when everyone here knew that Papyrus hasn't had one before.

"Then, maybe Sans can shleepover too?" Frisk suggested, and Sans looked up at her in surprise, Papyrus' grin grew wider (if that was possible).

"THAT IS AN EXCELLENT IDEA FRISK!" Papyrus looked expectantly at Sans.

"doesn't sound bed to me, bro," Sans commented smoothly. Frisk chuckled at the pun and Papyrus fumed, yet somehow, some of the tension in the air lifted.

It was then that Frisk's non-existent stomach growled, and she realised that she hadn't eaten yet in this timeline at all. Papyrus declared that it was time for lunch and was about to rush to the kitchen to prepare some spaghetti to eat. Frisk, however, grabbed his arm to stop him.

Papyrus looked down at her, confused, while Frisk saw in the corner of her eye-socket Sans eye flare bright blue. She explained herself quickly in a quiet voice.

"You, you don't need to, mishes Toriel gave me these sanwiches to eat, and-and I thought I could share." Frisk presented her basket full of sandwiches, purposely mentioning Toriel so Sans would notice and hopefully figure out that she was still alive this timeline.

Frisk inwardly smiled at how she had gotten a hang of at talking without a tongue now, and hopefully soon, she would stop making mistakes altogether.

Frisk could tell Sans either caught the message or had just relaxed because Frisk wasn't actually attacking Papyrus because his eye sockets had returned to normal. Papyrus looked disappointed that he didn't get to prepare his spaghetti for his new sibling, but thanked Frisk for being so thoughtful.

The three sat down in the living room and each took a sandwich. Frisk peeped at them first and saw that they were filled with a homemade apricot jam. She grinned and went to take a bite before hesitating.

How was she supposed to eat? How did skeletons eat? They didn't have lips, or a tongue. She didn't know how many times she had eaten with the skeleton brothers in the past, but she had never figured it out before. She looked to the brothers, and noticed that they didn't chew on the food, but rather just took a bite and waited for a few moments before biting again.

Sans was watching her, but instead of it being the all-seeing-make-sure-you-don't-do-a-violence stare, it was an amused grin.  _He knew._  He knew she hadn't figured it out yet. And he was internally mocking her, she felt it.

She decided to just take a bite and see what happens. Worst comes to worse, she could just pretend to be sick, right? No, she realised that would only make Papyrus worry, but she would think of something.

She took a bite out of the sandwich and waited a moment. She couldn't hide her surprise when she felt the food dissolving in her mouth, melting like chocolate but into nothing. She could still taste the jam too, which was deliciously sweet.

"Mmmm," She hummed in delight, she hadn't tasted Toriel's jam since her first run. She looked at Sans and saw that once she had taken a bite he had changed his focus to his food. Frisk could tell that he was glad to be eating the sandwiches, but she couldn't tell if it was because he remembered having them before, or rather because he was glad to avoid eating Papyrus' spaghetti.

Papyrus spoke up to get rid of the odd silence that had filled the room, "THESE SANDWICHES ARE WONDERFULL, YOU MUST TELL THIS 'MISHES TORIEL' THAT I AM THANKFUL TO HER FOR MAKING THEM!" Frisk looked down, not knowing how to tell Papyrus that she would never see Toriel again. She forced a smile and nodded, deciding it was best not to upset Papyrus.

Papyrus continued speaking, "I CANNOT WAIT TO INTRODUCE YOU TO UNDYNE." Frisk was glad she couldn't choke as a skeleton, or Papyrus might have noticed how scared she was at the mention of Undyne.

Undyne had always been a little scary to Frisk, even on the first timeline. She was pretty violent and loud, and Chara's genocide runs only made her more terrifying. While it was true that Frisk wasn't even in control of her body at the time, the image of Undyne's righteous fury and melting form would always be burnt into the inside of her skull.

Well at least she thought Papyrus wouldn't notice, but the innocent skeleton proved to be more perceptive than Frisk thought.

"WHAT IS WRONG FRISK?" Papyrus asked concerned, shocking Frisk out of her bad memories, despite this, however, still, she didn't know how to explain her fear to Papyrus before Sans responded.

"she's probably just intimidated at the thought of meeting the captain of the royal guard, after all, undyne's pretty tough, and frisk doesn't have any  _muscle_  on her." Papyrus groaned at Sans' pun but brightened up when he came up with an idea.

"I KNOW, I'LL GIVE FRISK SOME TRAINING, THAT OUGHT TO BOOST HER CONFIDENCE!" Papyrus stood up, picking up Frisk and immediately headed outside to start the training right away.

Sans hurried to catch up, "paps, i'm not sure that's a great idea…"

"DO NOT WORRY BROTHER, I'LL BE CAREFUL NOT TO HURT FRISK, I HAVE TRAINED WITH YOU IN THE PAST, SO YOU KNOW I AM AN EXPERT IN CONTROL" Papyrus completely missed Sans' true concerns, placing Frisk on the snow and walking back a few feet to get some distance between the two of them.

Frisk looked nervously at Sans, not sure what to do. Sans looked like he was going to have some kind of panic attack, judging by the sweat coming down his face. However, Frisk couldn't keep her focus on that for long, as Papyrus started to instruct her.

"NOW FRISK, I WILL TEACH YOU FROM THE VERY BASICS. FIRST RULE OF THE UNDERGROUND IN COMBAT IS TO CHECK YOUR OPPONENT ON YOUR FIRST TURN, LIKE SO." Papyrus checked Frisk, and suddenly Frisk's stats appeared for the three of them to see.

**FRISK – ATK 1 DEF 1**

**Only has 1 HP**

Both Papyrus and Sans stared shocked at Frisk's stats. Papyrus seemed concerned and Sans looked, odd… Calculating. Papyrus was the first to speak.

"I, I THOUGHT SANS WAS THE ONLY ONE TO HAVE STATS THIS LOW…" There was an uncomfortable silence.

Sans looked at Frisk with an unreadable expression. "kid… you and I need to talk."


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Frisk have a little chat.

Sans suggested that they go back inside to have some privacy and gently asked Papyrus to leave them alone. Papyrus seemed confused but did as his brother requested.

Frisk was alone with Sans again, and she began to fidget as her anxiety flooded back. He was mad, wasn't he? What was he going to do? She began eyeing the door, wondering if she could make it out before Sans got to her, before pushing that idea aside, Sans would always 'short-cut' to her…

"kid." Sans grabbed her attention gently. He seemed… calm, and maybe a little guilty. "don't worry, i'm not gonna hurt ya… yet. i just, i just need to ask ya some questions." This only made Frisk more anxious, but she nodded anyway.

"you made, you made a deal with her, didn't ya. with the sloth demon?" He asked her, Frisk's eyes widened, but she nodded again.

"and that's why… you're like this? why you don't have a human soul anymore?" He asked, he appeared like he already knew the answer, but he needed to make sure that his theory was correct.

Frisk's itching feeling came back, but she still couldn't quite figure out what was going on, "Yeah, but, how did you know?"

Sans looked down darkly, "because i made a deal with her too." Frisk gasped in surprise, and Sans continued. "look. how 'bout we each explain our stories because it appears to me that i must be missing some of the facts because you must have been pretty desperate to make a deal with a demon."

Frisk felt tears pool up in her eye sockets and fall down her face. Sans' eye sockets widened in concern. "I'm sorry Sans! I didn't know, I didn't know that they… I didn't, I'm sorry, please don't hate me! Please, please…" Frisk didn't care that she was finally talking like normal, she had wound herself up into a panic. She felt Sans' hands on her shoulders.

"shh, shh… it's alright, just, just tell me what happened, okay." Sans sounded so concerned, that Frisk just let it all spill out. How she RESET the first time, what happened to Chara. Chara was a story in themselves, since she hadn't told the others about them before. She cried harder when she began to explain to Sans how things got worse with Chara every time Frisk RESET, the games that Chara would play to mess with Frisk, and how Frisk tried to tell Sans before but Chara wouldn't let her. Frisk was sure she was a blubbering mess by this point but Sans seemed to understand what she was saying, and rubbed her back gently. He seemed pretty disturbed himself, there had been times that he had threatened this kid, while she was experiencing the same hell as him. He felt horrible.

Finally Frisk came to the last part of her story, how once everything was ERASED, she was about to RESET when the demon appeared and offered her a deal, and how she was so desperate that she couldn't refuse. "… Please, Sans, please believe me! I n-never hurt anyone, I, I would never hurt Papyrus. Please Sans, I swear, I swear I'm not lying" She begged him.

Sans' smiled grimly, "kid, i believe you. things actually make a lot more sense now… i'm sorry, i was pretty harsh on you before. and to think i almost attacked you today when you-," he cut himself off. "kid, i know you probably won't be able to forgive me but-" Frisk interrupted him by giving him the tightest hug she could. Sans was surprised for a few moments before chuckling and hugging Frisk back.

Frisk felt so exhausted, but she was so happy, this was everything that she had wanted since the second RESET. Sans believed her! And he had forgiven her! She began to shake as she cried tears of joy into his shirt. Sans froze as he felt them, but relaxed when Frisk looked up and smiled sweetly at him.

How had he ever thought that this little angel had been the same child that had hurt everyone he had cared about. He remembered her from the first ever timeline, and even after he had seen her die so many times to Undyne, Mettaton and all the others, she never had fought back. Here she was again, smiling so sweetly at him after he had done everything he could to intimidate her earlier. It was odd, but for some reason it reminded him of Papyrus.

Sans waited patiently for Frisk to stop crying, rubbing her back softly. Gently, he pushed her away so she could see his face and sat her back on the lounge.

"guess it's my turn, huh? alright. when we were kids, after our father… i had to look after papyrus, but… papyrus was born weak, i think it's similar to humans with genetics, but sometimes monsters are born with problems with their souls and they get sick all the time and struggle to do what other kids their age can. it was hard because all papyrus wanted to do was play with the other kids, make friends, join the royal guard when he got older, be a hero, and i, i didn't know how to tell him that he could never do those things.

"one day when i was taking a short-cut home something interfered, keeping me in the void, ah the place between destinations, before i bounced back to where i was supposed to go. it was them, the demon, and from what you described before, they were that same demon that you met. they called themselves falmercia, and she offered to make papyrus feel better, told me all i needed to do was exchange my soul for one that she created, claiming that a real soul was more valuable to demons.

"well, i accepted, and when i got back, papyrus was already doing better. i really thought that i'd gotten off easy until i noticed that my new soul was getting me tired all the time, and then when i checked my stats they were all ones. papyrus, of course, doesn't know, i couldn't tell him because i knew he'd feel guilty."

Frisk nodded in understanding. Sans looked up at the clock to see that the two of them had been talking like this for hours. Sans stood up.

"kid, i think it's about time we let papyrus back in, he's probably worried sick." Frisk smiled up at Sans and gave him another hug. When she pulled away she became embarrassed, hesitating before forcing herself to speak.

"Do you mind if I call you two my brothers?" Sans' eye sockets widened in surprise from the question, before softening.

"only if you don't mind me calling you babybones." Frisk blushed but shook her head.

"I don't mind."

"that's good, 'cause i wasn't really asking." Frisk pouted and followed Sans to the front door. They found Papyrus sitting a few feet from the front door with his arms wrapped around his legs staring sadly to the street. Frisk felt a pang in her chest at the sight, running up to him and giving him a hug from behind.

"FRISK! I'M GLAD THAT YOU HAVE FINISHED TALKING WITH SANS I WAS GETTING REALLY WORRIED WAITING OUT HERE." His eyes were filled with concern. "IS EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT?"

"yeah, i was just talking to babybones here about her low stats, since we're both pretty boned in that department." Sans patted Frisk on the shoulder gently.

"SANS!" Papyrus groaned, making Frisk giggle. Papyrus sighed looking down at Frisk, "LET'S GO BACK INSIDE, IT IS TIME I STARTED TO PREPARE DINNER FOR EVERYONE."

Papyrus went past Sans and into the house, and Sans and Frisk left by themselves giving each other a look that said 'stars help us' before following him back inside.

Frisk tried to save the day by offering to help in the kitchen, but Papyrus refused and told her to relax and she didn't need to work so hard on her first day as part of the family.

The mention of 'hard work' made Frisk yawn and she joined Sans on the couch, who was already snoozing away. She decided that it wouldn't hurt to close her eye sockets for just a few moments…

"FRISK!" The first thing Frisk saw when she was startled awake was Papyrus' face only a few inches from hers. "I HAVE FINISHED PREPARING DINNER."

Frisk turned to Sans, who was also slowly waking up, and back to Papyrus, who had gotten impatient and decided to pick her up and carry her to the table. Sans appeared a few moments later, and Frisk could see him staring at the food warily.

When she looked back to Papyrus he was staring at her expectantly, so she hesitantly took her fork and twirled some of the spaghetti around it. Giving it one last look, she put in in her mouth.

Admittedly, it didn't actually taste as bad as when she was human, but it was still pretty terrible, and the fact that she couldn't force it down any faster didn't make things any better. Seeing Papyrus was still looking at her, she forced a smile and gave him a thumbs up. Papyrus grinned wildly and switched his attention back to his own food.

The three made idle chit-chat, Papyrus asking Frisk a few questions about her and where she had come from and Sans having to rescue her a few times.

"I AM GLAD THAT YOU TWO ARE GETTING ALONG NOW," Papyrus commented, making Sans and Frisk both wide-eyed.

"pap, you, you noticed that there was something wrong?" Sans asked nervously.

"OF COURSE I NOTICED, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS AM A VERY PERCEPTIVE PERSON, AND I KNOW MY BROTHER VERY WELL AND KNOW WHEN SOMETHING IS BOTHERING HIM." Papyrus proclaimed, and Sans chuckled nervously.

Frisk finished her plate, "Thank you for the food… brother." She said in a nervous voice, unsure how Papyrus would react.

Papyrus was silent for a brief moment before grinning wildly, "IT WAS MY PLEASURE, SISTER!"

Sans and Papyrus finished their own plates and Papyrus brought them to the abnormally high sink and cleaned them up. they moved to the living room and frisk yawned loudly.

"i think it's bedtime for babyboneses." Sans pointed out. Papyrus eyes widened in glee.

"TIME FOR THE SLEEPOVER TO BEGIN!"

"good idea bro, i could use some 'z's right now."

"BUT THAT'S JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE A LAZYBONES." Papyrus groaned before picking Frisk up again and moving up the stairs.

Papyrus and Sans left Frisk in Papyrus' room to get changed into their pyjama's, Sans promising to get the kid some new ones tomorrow. Frisk took off her shoes and socks and placed them neatly by the door.

After waiting a few more moments she decided that she could wait by sitting on Papyrus' bed. She should have known better though that with her knew soul this was a slippery slope, and before she knew it she had fallen asleep.

She was lightly brought out of her slumber when Sans and Papyrus entered the bed. The bed wasn't really made for three people, but they all fitted snugly, and Papyrus had grabbed her like a teddy bear.

"G'night" She mumbled, still half asleep.

"GOODNIGHT SISTER!"

"sweet dreams, babybones."

She wished.


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk has nightmares and spends the day with Sans.

_Frisk was in the first room in the ruins where she fell. She looked around to see that the usual corridor that she would leave through was gone. She looked down to push herself up from the ground. She blinked realising she was still in her human body._

_Upon contact with her hands, the golden flowers surrounding her shrivelled up into dust._

_"_ _W-what?" She called out confused. And then she felt_ _ their _ _presence creeping over her like a snake up her spine and on her shoulders becoming hands._

_Chara._

_"_ _Hehehe, don't pretend that you don't know yet Frisk~" They sang, their eyes flashing red, "Everything you touch turns to dust."_

_Frisk shook her head, "N-no!"_

_Chara grinned, bearing black teeth, "Haven't I shown you enough?" They darted around Frisk, their messy red hair blocking her vision._

_"_ _They all died because you cared about them, Frisk. It's true I did it, but that's your fault too, and you didn't even have the strength to stop me, so much for your DETERMINATION… And you RESET the world for me, again and again, causing Sans so much torment." Chara suddenly darted to Frisk, their face inches away from hers. Frisk whimpered, trying to look away from Chara's black eyes._

_"_ _We both know Frisk, that it might as well been you holding the knife."_

_Frisk grabbed Chara by their black blazer and pushed them off of her. "No! I would never…. I didn't do it... Y-you did… I'm not bad… I'm not bad…" She whimpered her mantra, clinging on to it._

_"_ _Yes, you are. That's why I punish you Frisk, why I kill them, and why I'm never going to go away." Chara stalked up to Frisk, and Frisk's eyes widened when she saw a black knife in Chara's grey hand._

_"_ _To punish you for the sin you made." Frisk then had the sudden realisation that the one in front of her wasn't Chara, but Falmercia, grinning sweetly as she raised her knife and drove it into Frisk's chest._

Frisk screamed as she jumped out of bed. She blinked a few times to realise that she was in Papyrus' room. She looked at her hands and sighed when she saw that she was a skeleton again.

"SISTER? ARE YOU ALRIGHT? I HEARD YOU SCREAM!" Papyrus called from downstairs. Frisk smiled and shook off the dream.

"I'm alright! I just a nightmare, that's all!" She called back. There was silence for a few moments and Frisk crawled to her shoes by the door, taking notice of her continued drowsiness.

"… IF YOU SAY SO… SANS HAS NIGHTMARES TOO." Frisk took notice that Papyrus sounded more than just a bit concerned while she was tying her shoelaces, but also calculating, like when he was solving a particularly tricky puzzle.

Papyrus was smarter than Chara gave him credit, Frisk could tell, he was already noticing the similarities between her and Sans, it was possible that given enough time he might even find out about the RESETS or their deals or both all on his own.

Frisk hurried down the stairs and into the living room. Sans was sleeping on the couch, and if the smell was anything to indicate, Papyrus was cooking in the kitchen. Frisk mentally groaned, if she wanted to prevent more kitchen disasters in the morning, she'd need to wake up earlier, which she could already tell would be completely exhausting as she is now after her contract.

"you alright kid?" Sans asked, bringing Frisk out of her thoughts. Turns out that although his eyes were closed, he wasn't actually asleep. He sat up, giving her a concerned look, "you said you had a nightmare."

"Yeah… it was just…  _them_ … and  _her_  too." Frisk looked up to Sans, and they shared an understanding in a glance. Sans had the same sort of dreams.

Papyrus called them saying that breakfast was ready. Frisk and Sans shared a fearful look and went to the table. Papyrus presented them each a plate of spaghetti and cheerfully sat down and started to munch on his. They both excepted their fate and joined in.

"TODAY SANS AND I HAVE SENTRY DUTY, SO I'M AFRAID THAT WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO LEAVE YOU ALONE TODAY," Papyrus said guiltily, and Frisk looked down saddened. She had forgotten that Sans and Papyrus each had jobs to do, and she had been hoping to spend some more time with them today, especially after only just regaining Sans' friendship and trust.

"don't be like that, babybones, you could always join me at my station." Sans offered. Frisk looked up at him hopefully. "yeah, i could always use an extra pair of eyes, considering mine are usually shut."

"SANS!" Papyrus groaned, looking at Sans with disappointment, "BUT, IF THAT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY SISTER, YOU CAN JOIN HIM."

Frisk nodded her head enthusiastically.

* * *

Papyrus had let Sans and Frisk go on ahead to Sans' stations without him while he recalibrated his puzzles. Frisk eyed Sans' hand for a few moments, before grabbing it.

Sans' eye-sockets widened before he smiled warmly at her. "you're too cute, babybones." He said, making Frisk giggle.

The two arrived at Sans' station shortly after that. Sans' pulled out a cushion and offered it to Frisk as a make-shift seat, which Frisk gratefully accepted. Sans sat down in his own seat and motioned for Frisk to lean against him.

"i think we can both agree, that our first order of business is a good nap." Frisk feeling her own drowsiness could only agree, so they did.

* * *

Frisk woke to the sound of Papyrus shouting.

"SANS! YOU'RE BEING A BAD INFLUENCE ON OUR YOUNGER SISTER. IF YOU KEEP THIS UP SHE'S GOING TO END UP BEING A LAZYBONES JUST LIKE YOU."

Frisk frowned slightly. Normally she would have been amused at Papyrus' annoyance at Sans' lazy tendencies, but now that she knew that Sans couldn't help it, it wasn't as funny. But still, Papyrus didn't know that, nor did Sans want him to know, so the whole situation made Frisk feel a pang in her soul.

"sorry bro, i guess we were both  _bone_ -tired. i'd say it won't happen again, but  _tibia_  honest, that's probably not true." Sans said with an amused smile.

"SANS!" Papyrus groaned before sighing, "WELL, YOU SOMEHOW MANAGED TO SLEEP THROUGH OUR ENTIRE SHIFT TODAY, SO IT'S TIME TO GO HOME."

"sweet bro."

* * *

When the three got back home, Papyrus suddenly stopped at the door with an odd look on his face.

"what's wrong bro?" Sans asked.

"FOR SOME REASON… I FEEL LIKE I HAVE FORGOTTEN SOMETHING IMPORTANT." That  _was_  weird, Papyrus wasn't a forgetful person, but now that Frisk thought about it, she felt like they were forgetting something.

They entered the house anyway still contemplating what it was that they had forgotten. They started to get settled into the house while still feeling uneasy, that is Papyrus and Frisk. Sans was already carelessly sleeping on the couch.

That was interrupted when their front door slammed open and Undyne burst into the room. "PAPYRUS, YOU PUNK! WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOW UP FOR YOUR TRAINING!"

Oh, so that's what they forgot.

"UM, I'M SORRY UNDYNE, I GOT BUZY AND DISTRACTED YESTERDAY AND I FORGOT." Papyrus apologised, looking like a kicked puppy. Undyne took it down a notch, unable to be mad at Papyrus when he gets like this.

A bit calmer now, she spots Frisk, who had instinctually stepped behind Papyrus at the sight of Undyne. Frisk was close to having a panic attack and was shaking like a leaf. When she saw that she had been spotted, she squeaked and stepped back a bit.

But instead of being angry or anything, Undyne was surprisingly calm. "Hey, kid, who are you? I haven't seen you around before." She asked more gently than she had ever spoken to Frisk before.

"THIS IS OUR NEW SISTER, FRISK!" Papyrus came to Frisk's rescue, who had been too nervous to speak. "BROTHER SAYS SHE LIVED IN THE RUINS AND HER PARENTS HAD FALLEN DOWN, SO NOW SHE IS LIVING WITH US!"

Undyne looked sympathetically at Frisk for a brief moment, before grinning. "Nice to meet ya, kid! I'm Undyne, captain of the royal guard, if you're ever in any trouble, don't be scared to ask for my help." She smirked, "That is unless you've been up to mischief, then I'm going to have to teach you a lesson."

Frisk whimpered, having a flashback of Undyne's 'Undyne the undying' form.

Undyne chuckled, "Just messin' with ya! I don't go after kids, punk." She went up to Frisk and gave her a noogie on the head.

"DON'T NOOGIE THE SKELETON!" Papyrus pleaded, "HEY! BE CAREFUL, SHE ONLY HAS 1 HP!"

"Don't worry, I'm not hurting 'ah"

Frisk couldn't help but chuckle herself.


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk gets a little magic training.

The next day, Frisk woke up screaming again. This time before she even managed to become aware of her surroundings, she felt Sans rubbing her back in comfort.

"same dream?" He asked, voice gentle.

"Same dream." She confirmed. Sans stopped his circular motions and gave her a tight hug. For a moment Frisk flinched, before melting into it. She still found it difficult to believe that Sans truly cared about her, it just felt too good to be true.

Sans noticed how Frisk flinched and grimaced. Dammit, he didn't want this, the child's fear of him was painful. If only he had known what was going on, he should have been able to figure it out on his own. Now every minute he spent with this… babybones, the more obvious it became that she just couldn't have hurt anyone, she just too gentle, too timid, that added with his memories of the first timeline… Sans felt like a very stupid skeleton.

"babybones…"

"DID SHE HAVE ANOTHER NIGHTMARE?" The two's attention was brought to Papyrus' concerned voice and they both turned their heads to see him standing at the door.

Frisk nodded. Papyrus frowned and joined the cuddle pile. Frisk sighed in contentment. It had been a long time since she had felt so loved.

Papyrus withdrew from the hug. "TODAY, IS THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND HIS BROTHER'S DAY OFF. SO, I PROPOSE THAT WE SPEND TODAY TEACHING YOU HOW TO USE YOUR MAGIC!" Papyrus beamed with excitement.

Sans also let go, "good idea bro."

Frisk shook her head, "But… I don't wanna fight anyone." Not ever. She had seen way too much pain and death already.

Sans hummed, "we could teach you how to summon your Gaster blasters. they can be used as an attack, but they can also be good pets."

That… That perked Frisk's interest.

"THEN IT'S SETTLED! WE SHALL BEGIN TRAINING AFTER BREAKFAST!" Papyrus ran down to start making breakfast, and Frisk got up to help him (and save Sans and herself). A wave of dizziness made her head heavy and she flopped on the floor before she made it to the door.

"be careful babybones, you can't get up too fast." Sans cautioned. Frisk's looked up at him and nodded, eyes troubled. "don't worry, ya get used to it."

Frisk made it downstairs slowly, bracing herself against the wall. It was like she had stayed up 'till midnight and had woken up early, when in fact she had in fact gone to bed right after dinner and had woken up much later than she normally did. The fact that she was having nightmares obviously wasn't helping.

By the time she reached the kitchen, it was far too late, Papyrus had even started to dish the spaghetti. She looked to Sans with an apology in her eyes. For a moment, he looked confused until realisation entered his eyes, he shook his head and gave her a pat on the shoulder.

They ate the meal as fast as their skeleton mouths would allow before Papyrus pulled them out the front door and into the clearing.

Sans looked at Frisk who was fidgeting nervously. "since you're so excited pap, why don't you summon yours first?" He wanted to gage Frisk's reaction before he summoned his own Gaster blasters, unsure if they'd bring up bad memories and freak her out.

"I DON'T NORMALLY SUMMON MY GASTER BLASTERS, AS THEY TAKE UP A LOT OF SPACE." Papyrus explained, before raising his hand, it took a brief few seconds of concentration before Papyrus' large Gaster blaster popped into existence. It was huge, taking up the space equal to the size of the brothers' kitchen.

Frisk stared wide-socketed at the blaster, amazed at the sheer size of it. Papyrus smiled cheerfully before motioning her to come closer.

With shaky legs, she took a step closer, checking how the blaster would react, when it didn't do anything, she took another. And another, and another, before she ran to Papyrus' side a couple of feet away from it.

"GO ON, SISTER." Frisk looked up at Papyrus, confused. "NYEH-HEH-HEH" He chuckled, gently taking her hand and brought it to the Gaster blaster's nose.

Frisk flinched when she felt a puff of air whistle through her hand as the Gaster Blaster gave it a good long sniff before it nuzzled her to the ground.

"Hehehe," A giggle escaped her as she raised her arms to protect her head from the blaster's nuzzles. She turned to the brothers with a huge smile on her face.

Sans sighed in relief, he had been nervous for a second there.

"the more time you spend with your blasters, the more attuned you become with them. with enough time, you can communicate with 'em telepathically, like i can." Sans summoned his own blasters and had them join Papyrus' in nuzzling Frisk, making Frisk's giggles increase in volume.

When the brothers decided Frisk had had enough they called of their blasters and unsummoned them.

"now it's your turn to try babybones." Frisk felt a cold nervousness enter her chest. She didn't feel ready. What if she lost control of her blaster and it hurt one of the brothers? Sans would be so mad at her.

"come on, babybones, at least give it a shot." Sans encouraged. "i taught pap so i know what i'm doing."

Frisk looked up, "A-alright."

"great." Sans walked so he was right behind Frisk. "first, i want you to focus on your soul."

"Okay." Frisk closed her eyes, feeling her new soul at the centre of her being, it felt… different than before somehow.

"don't close your eyes." Sans scolded. Frisk immediately opened her eyes, not wanting to upset him, but Sans didn't look angry at all, just stern. "you can still feel your soul, right?" Frisk nodded, realising she could. "now, i want you to see if you can feel your magic pumping through your soul."

Frisk narrowed her eyes, now carefully paying attention. She could feel it, her magic, although she could guess it was pumping through her soul, it felt more like air breathing through lungs.

"Y-yeah, I can feel it."

"good. now i want you to take it and pull it out in front of you," Frisk mentally pulled the magic from her chest and brought it in front of her. To her amazement, she could actually see it in front of her, in the form of a dark blue mist.

"that's right, like that, good. now, to make it a Gaster blaster, you have to let it go a bit, let the magic become alive."

This Frisk struggled with, she tried, but it felt like something was holding her back. Eventually, the mist dissipated leaving nothing.

"I'm sorry." She apologised, embarrassed that she had wasted Sans' time.

"don't worry about it, i can't expect you to get it right first try, can i?" Sans chuckled, before checking an imaginary watch. "now would you look at that, it's break time, let's go to grillby's"

"SANS! WE HAVE ONLY BEEN TRAINING FOR AN HOUR!" Papyrus groaned, Sans looked down at Frisk.

"quick hold my hand, i know a shortcut." Grabbing onto Frisk's hand.

While Frisk had experienced Sans' shortcuts as a human, the magic had always overwhelmed her too much for her get a sense of what was going on, but this time as a monster, it was so much clearer to her.

She could feel her soul being pulled through… something?... and into something that could only be described as emptiness, before her soul quickly bounced off something solid and out of the emptiness, Sans and her arriving inside of Grillby's. She blinked, hearing everyone welcoming Sans back.

"Wow." She said in a quiet voice, amazed. Sans heard her and gave her a small smile that said; 'i know' before he looked back up and waved to everyone.

"(Who's this?)" Dogaressa is the one to ask. Everyone nodding to show their interest.

"This is Frisk, she's my new little sister." Everyone smiled and greeted her, not asking any questions. Frisk smiled brightly, this was nice.


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk and Sans have a strange encounter.

The warm welcome had cheered Frisk up greatly, and she was starting to feel her confidence coming back. Sans lead her to his – their- usual spot, and it was a catch of fresh air to know this time he didn't have an ulterior motive.

The atmosphere was warm and Frisk felt herself smiling, relaxing, and Sans had noticed too. It brought a warmth to his soul to know that the kid was getting some peace.

After a quick discussion, he ordered two burgers from Grillby, and they began to talk, and for once the conversation didn't feel uncomfortable.

"so babybones, if you don't mind me askin', what actually happened to your parents? if memory serves me right, you never went back to 'em up top." Sans asked watching Frisk's face carefully, internally wincing when he noticed that her smile faltered.

"I… ran away." Frisk answered, looking away from Sans' face. Sans sat uncomfortably for a few seconds, unsure what to say when Frisk looked back up at him. "It's odd. On the first timeline, it… hurt too much to talk about, but now, well, we both know there are worse things."

Sans' smile turned grim. 'no need to remind me.' While he was glad that this subject didn't hurt Frisk anymore, he wasn't happy it came at the price of all the pain the two of them had experienced so far.

"I was the youngest of three daughters, and I had one younger brother. My other siblings were all… so much better than me. My oldest sister was at the top of her classes and competed in ballet competitions on a national level, while my other sister could play three instruments, sing and paint. My younger brother's only six and he competes in chess and they already say that he's going to be a tennis superstar. While I, well, I was just me."

Sans visibly frowned. 'just her, she was only twelve and she saved all of us with sheer willpower and DETERMINATION on her first timeline.'

"My parents told me that the reason I wasn't as good as the other was because I was too lazy." Frisk chuckled, "If only they could see me now."

Sans laughed too, glad that Frisk was making light of the situation.

"What about your dad?" Frisk asked suddenly, making Sans freeze and stare at her wide-socketed in shock.

"what?" Frisk flinched and looked down.

"I'm sorry! It's just you mentioned him earlier and I was curious. You-you don't have to talk about it."

This time Sans' wince was visible. "sorry, babybones. it's alright, i'm not mad. it was just a shock, okay?" Frisk relaxed and nodded in understanding. There was an uncomfortable silence between the two of them for a few seconds.

"there was an accident while he was working. it was our –no, my- fault. he didn't have anyone that could look after us while he worked, so he let paps and i play in the core where he could keep an eye on us. i was supposed to be in charge and make sure that we stayed out of dad's way. there was no railing back then, and he was taking some readings. me and paps were playing chasings and we were getting competitive. one of us ended up bumping into him, can't remember who, and he- and he fell into the core. there isn't a trace of him left. at all. no one even remembers him, and i've been trying to get him back, but i don't even know if that's possible."

Frisk thought for a few moments, remembering how once in one of many timelines she had seen another skeleton in a room that appeared out of nowhere, and she hasn't seen since. Could that have been Gaster? She considered telling Sans, decided that she didn't want to bring his hopes up, knowing that the door may never appear again.

The two manage to shake off the uncomfortable mood and start chatting comfortably again. Cracking jokes, planning pranks. They even discussed ways that they could take naps without being caught by Papyrus.

"Maybe we could set up a trip wire alarm attached to a bell that wakes us up? And if he asks about it, we can say it's for detecting humans." Frisk proposed.

"that idea ain't half bad." Sans agreed. "speaking of paps, we should probably get back to him before he gets worried."

Frisk felt a little disappointed, but nodded and slipped off her seat and took Sans' hand ready to take a short-cut.

She felt the pull on her soul again, as well as the odd sensation of passing through some kind of barrier. This time she was prepared to bounce of the solid barrier, however, she could feel something anchor her soul as they began to launch to their destination. It felt like she was standing knee deep in water at the beach, and the tide was retreating, pulling at her as she remained anchored to the ground.

Her senses washed over her as she felt herself becoming centred once again. She rubbed her eyes in hopes of restoring her vision when she saw Sans next to her and realised that her surroundings, were, in fact, all white.

Sans grip on her hand tightened and she looked at him questioningly. What was going on? Where were they? Why would Sans-

"Down here." Frisk's thoughts were interrupted by the voice of a certain demon, and then everything clicked. This was the void, Falmercia had kept them here, just like how when she made a deal with Sans.

Frisk looked down as instructed, and saw that the Sloth demon was laying down on the 'ground' lazily, resting her chin on the hand, one leg crossed over the other.

"Go on, lay down, relax, we're all lazy here," Falmercia grinned smugly, "well now, anyway."

Frisk felt Sans getting angry next to her, but she also noticed something else. Falmercia had a tired atmosphere around her, and not in the metaphorical sense. Frisk knew that she was always tired, but it somehow felt worse now, and she had to agree that sitting down didn't sound so bad.

Still holding onto Sans' hand, who stood still and refused to move, Frisk sat down, yawning, noticing Sans giving her a worried glance.

Falmercia continued to try persuade to Sans, "Don't worry, I'm a sloth demon, you'd actually be showing me respect." Sans didn't move, "Well, suit yourself."

Sans glared, not saying anything, and Frisk became concerned.

"I want to propose another deal." Falmercia said casually.

"no." Sans refused.

"Come on, you haven't even heard me out."

"you don't have anything that we want." Sans growled.

"You sure?"

"definitely. now let us go." Sans tugged at Frisk's hand, but she felt too tired to get up.

"W. D. Gaster." Falmercia said matter-of-factly.

Sans froze solid, "what did you say!?" he growled.

"Oh, that got your attention?" Falmercia smirked. "He's alive, you know, trapped in the void here. I can help you rescue him."

Frisk saw the desperation on Sans face. He looked so... lost. She had never seen him like this before, it was almost like he was a child.

"you can do that?" Sans asked suspiciously, despite his obvious desperation for hope.

"Easy-peasy." Falmercia said in a bored tone.

"then why didn't you offer that to me in the first deal?!" Sans asked angrily, to which Falmercia laughed.

"If I had, I couldn't have offered a second deal, this way I can get two objects of my desire, without having to make the effort of finding another mortal to bargain with."

Sans sighed, "then why did you wait this long? why now?"

Falmercia shrugged, "I'm a lazy gal. Why so suspicious Sansy?"

"i don't trust you." Falmercia didn't appear to be too bothered.

"That's smart, I suppose, but we demons don't lie, well, some of us probably would if we could, we are demons after all, but it's more that we can't."

Frisk could feel the tension in the room rising, and she didn't like it. She needed to redirect this conversation now.

"What do you want anyway?" She asked in a quiet voice, "You already have our souls, what else do we have that you want?"

Falmercia smiled at Frisk, "Well, it's less what you have, and more what you can acquire." Frisk looked confused. "Have you ever heard of the undergrounds legendary artefact?" Falmercia inquired.

Frisk had, she had even seen it, multiple times, she realised. Chara had been just as keen to get it at one point too, but no matter what, they never managed to get it, a certain annoying dog always getting to it first.

"I'd like you to get it for me." Falmercia asked simply.

"and why can't you just get it yourself?" asked Sans.

"There are wards that prevent non-mortals like me from ever touching it. Heh, they even stopped Frisky here back when her DETERMINATION would let her die." Sans' sockets widened, looking at Frisk in surprize.

"But… that was the annoying dog." Frisk refused to believe that it was some kind of magic force.

Falmercia shuddered, "There is more to that annoying dog than what meets the eye, or well, eye-socket. So, what do you say?"

Sans looked down uncertain, and Frisk didn't want to make a deal without Sans, so there was just silence, still, Falmercia grinned.

"Look, how about we do it this way? If you ever decide to take me up on my deal, go get the artefact and open up your side's door to the void. I'll meet you in the middle and if you give me the artefact, I'll give you Gaster."

Frisk bit her lip, looking to Sans who was still in deep thought.

"I'll let you two mortals think about it. Bye-bye!"

And then they were suddenly pushed back to the skelebros' house.


	9. Chapter 8 (mini chapter)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation within the void between two ’demons’.

Falmercia remained back in the void, smirking with amusement as she sensed the spirit that had been curiously watching her. She rolled over to look behind her, directly at the spirit as it made themselves visible.

"So, what does it do, the artefact?" asked Chara.

Falmercia folded her arms behind her head, "Why would I tell you?"

Chara frowned, "Do you even know?"

Falmercia sighed looking up at the nothingness. "Yes, I know what it does."

Chara twitched, "But how? Not even I know,"

Falmercia closed her black eyes and bared her sharp, black teeth, "I know a lot of things that others don't. For example, I know how Sans remembers the RESETS, and he doesn't even know why." Falmercia smirked and opened one eye to look at Chara.

"It's because of his time in here. The void exists beyond time, larger amounts of exposure to the magic here makes you immune to magic that affects time, making you beyond time yourself. Each time Sans makes a short-cut, he is here for one second, and with that sloth stained soul that I gave him, he short-cuts quite a lot."

Chara ground their teeth, glaring at Falmercia, who closed her eye again.

"And that's why your memory is fixing itself, exposure to here." Falmercia's grin turned sadistic despite her sweet tone, opening her eyes again. "That's right, Chara. Your family never betrayed you, all that pain and suffering was Frisk's, and that pain was your family avenging you. And Frisk? You hated her because that little girl blamed herself for your actions, and you did everything in your power to convince her that. Well done, round of applause, you've caused more pain some of my fellow demons have."

Chara remained silent, making Falmercia open her eyes. "Would you look at that? That's the look of someone with their sins crawling up their back."

"Why do you care? You don't even care about Frisk." Chara snapped, shaking with anger, grief, and guilt.

Falmercia chuckled, "You're right, I don't." She propped herself up with her elbows and glared at Chara, "I just hate you."

Chara blinked, "But why?"

Falmercia frowned and scrunched her eyebrows, "You're no demon, yet you think that you can act like one of us. We demons cause pain because that's what we're made for, but you, mixed up memories or not, you did what you did because you liked it, enjoyed it, without any such reason. And worst of all, you thought that you could engage in soul trade, and not just make a trade for any soul, but a soul I wanted. You better be glad that you weren't magically capable of such a feat, because if you were…"

Falmercia got up and summoned a black quarterstaff, twirling it in her fingers.

"I would have beaten you to death so many times and for so long that you would have forgotten what was left of your memories. Until all you knew was pain and suffering. And only then, I would let you trade that soul to me, with nothing but the sweet release of death being your reward."


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What to do? What to do?

Frisk was overwhelmed with concern when she saw the look on Sans' face. It was so troubled and conflicted, and he was so deep in thought that he hadn't let go of her hand yet. He was shaking.

"Sans?" She asked quietly, not sure if she would set him off. Sans didn't respond though, his eye-sockets narrowed as he remained deep in thought. He was getting angrier, his grip on her hand tightening.

" _Sans."_  Frisk stressed in a louder voice tugging at her hand, his grip beginning to hurt, but Sans remained unreachable. Frisk could tell that whatever was going on in his head was getting worse as his eye-lights faded away. He was starting to scare her.

"Sans!" She shouted, yanking at her hand again, now worried about her single HP being lost accidentally to his tightening grip.

" _what!_ " Sans snapped, his eye flickering blue with magic. Frisk flinched away, tears escaping her eye-sockets.

"Your hurting me!" She whimpered.

The anger on Sans' face drained away and flooded with guilt. He quickly let go of her hand and brought his hands up as a sign of passiveness.

"i-i'm sorry, babybones." He apologised. Frisk stepped away, still terrified and tears now running down her face like raindrops. "i'm not mad at you. i-i didn't mean to hurt ya. it's, it's just that this has stressed me out, and-and," He closed his eye-sockets, bringing his hands to his face, Frisk peered at him curiously, pity beginning to swell in her chest.

"it's my fault that he's trapped there, and falmercia is giving me a chance to get him back, but i can't trust her, and even if i can we don't even know what this legendary artefact does and we could be just giving her all she needs to kill us all, or  _worse_. and-and-and-" Sans was interrupted when Frisk crushed him in a hug, and he immediately went back to apologising, feeling awful and well aware that she must have been absolutely terrified. "i'm sorry, i'm so sorry frisk."

"It's alright Sans." Frisk assured. She completely understood, Sans was so stressed and while it freaked her out to see him like this when he was usually so calm and cool, it was completely fair. He obviously felt responsible for what happened to Gaster, but it was an actual demon that was offering to return Gaster to him, a demon who had purposely neglected to mention important details about their deals in the past.

It was a tough choice and if anything bad happened because they made this deal, it would be entirely on them. Frisk had a bad feeling about this deal on so many levels, but remembering Sans' face before when Falmercia told him that Gaster was alive…

"Let's do it." Frisk said suddenly, and Sans looked at her if she had grown another skull. "Let's get Gaster back."

Sans looked down at Frisk, worry in his eye-sockets, "babybones, you- we, we don't need to do this for my sake. it's too big of a risk."

Frisk shook her head, "I can't let you blame yourself forever Sans, you've gone through so much, experienced so much loss, because of my mistakes, it's time you got something back."

"frisk…" Sans looked like he didn't know what to say.

"Maybe we can look at the artefact first and see what it does before we give it to Falmercia. If we think it's dangerous we could always back out." Frisk reasoned, hoping that it would sooth Sans' conscience.

"that, that doesn't sound like a bad idea, babybones." Sans agreed, making Frisk smile. He held out his hand which she took, "let's take a shortcut to waterfall."

This time the shortcut was much quicker and didn't leave Frisk feeling confused afterwards. She looked around and saw that they were standing by the umbrella stand, and remembering Asriel's statue, Frisk went over and picked one up.

"what are you doing, kiddo?" Sans asked, confused as he had never attempted to get the legendary artefact before.

"To get inside the room that has the artefact, you need to get play a song on the piano," Frisk said under the assumption that Sans knew which piano she was speaking of, "and you hear that song when you put an umbrella over Asriel's statue."

"asriel's statue?" Sans asked, not sure what Frisk was talking about.

"This way," Frisk pointed in the statue's direction and started walking. Sans shrugged and followed her, probably assuming that she knew what she was doing.

As they walked they listened to the gentle sounds of waterfall, the sound of water running soothing to their non-existent ears. The both remained quiet, as they both had a lot to think about, though unsurprisingly it was Frisk who broke the silence.

"Sans, what did Falmercia mean by 'our sides door'?" She asked.

Sans looked at Frisk and explained carefully, "between here, or as i like to call it, reality, and the void, there are two barriers, or doors as dad called them. to go from one side, say reality, and stay in the other, the void, the doors need to be opened from both sides, or else we just bounce back to the side you came from. i take advantage of this with my short-cuts."

Frisk nodded, concentrating, "So, that thing I feel my soul pass through each time we take a shortcut is our side's door?"

Sans nodded, "yep. as for how dad got trapped in there… i have a theory. i think when he fell into the core, he tried to take a shortcut out to save himself, but the core is a magical generator, and must have boosted his magic, which must have sent him crashing through the void's door instead of bouncing off, and he mustn't be able to get out because he can't open our door."

Frisk's eyes widened and she beamed, coming up with an idea, "Then why don't you open our side's door for him?" Sans shook his head with regret.

"no can do, babybones, this sort of magic is very advanced stuff, and it has to be precise. at my level, unless we open the doors at the exact time, knowing each other's exact location… it just won't be possible." Frisk looked down in disappointment. What was she thinking? If it was possible, Sans would have thought and tried it already.

However, Sans' explanation made her eyes widen in fear as a thought entered her head.

Asriel's statue became visible and Frisk made a quick dash ahead to put the umbrella in place, regretting her decision immediately as a wave of exhaustion flushed over her before she even reached it.

Asriel's song began to play, and Sans narrowed his eyes at the sound, "i have heard this before… but where?"

Frisk smiled grimly, "The first run. After I fought Asriel and he opened the barrier for us." Sans nodded numbly. He took a look at Frisk who waved her hand with the music, memorising the music notes. She smiled bitter-sweetly as she caught him watching her.

"I'm not as good as my sister, but I can at least do this." Sans looked down, Frisk's story made him feel uncomfortable. She didn't deserve that.

Once Frisk was sure that she had memorised all the notes, she nodded at Sans and the headed back towards the Artefact room.

Suddenly she spoke up about what was bothering her. "Sans? About what you said earlier about the magic being advanced, what does that say about Falmercia?"

Sans frowned and shook his skull, "i don't think i want to know." Frisk nodded grimly, she had been getting a feeling that Falmercia was hiding something, more than that, that she was planning something. The more she learnt about what this demon was capable of, the more scared it made her, but she chose not to mention this to Sans, she didn't want to make this decision any harder for him.

Frisk grabbed Sans' hand and held it tightly, they walked the rest of the way in silence, both with daunting thoughts on their minds.


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans and Frisk retrieve the Artefact.

When the two approached the piano puzzle concealing the Legendary Artefact, Frisk let go of Sans' hand and moved forward to the piano. Mumbling the notes, she gently pressed the correct keys and the archway leading in appeared out of nowhere.

Taking a breath in anticipation, Frisk grabbed Sans' hand again and the entered the room. As usual the glistening red orb that was the Legendary Artefact was sitting on its pedestal, and Frisk automatically checked her pockets for a certain annoying dog, but for once, it wasn't there.

Still, Frisk was scared to touch it, feeling paranoid, she glanced at Sans, and begged him with her eyes to pick it up. Sans gave her a mildly confused glance, before shrugging and picking it up.

Frisk felt like the seconds he reached to the Artefact were in slow motion, her soul was pulsing in her chest, and in disbelief, she watched as Sans simply picked it up.

Sans gave her a weird look, "what were you expecting to happen babybones?" he asked, faint amusement in his voice. Frisk felt herself shrugging. Sans chuckled, "alright, let's check the room to see if there is anything that tells us what this thing does."

It didn't take much searching to find that the room wouldn't give them any answers. It was completely bare, with exception of the pedestal and a sign. The sign itself wasn't helpful either, it only said "Here lies the Legendary Artefact.", and both Sans and Frisk agreed that the person who made the sign needed to get better at writing signs.

"welp, that was a waste of time and effort, we may as well take a shortcut home, but just in case we should leave the room before we try anything," Sans explained.

Frisk nodded, understanding why Sans would want to get out of here before taking a shortcut. If there were wards preventing Falmercia from coming  _in_ , then she didn't want to know if there were wards keeping them from shortcutting  _out_.

As soon as they stepped out Sans took the shortcut home. Luckily, Papyrus wasn't home and must have gone out somewhere, so they could put the Legendary Artefact on the table and take a look at it.

"So… how do we find out what it does?" Asked Frisk, and Sans brought his hand to his chin in thought.

"we could have a go at examining its magic, that might give us a clue," Sans suggested, before putting his hand on the orb and closing his eyes in focus. Frisk watched him curiously as he instantly frowned, he kept his hand on the orb for another minute before taking in off and shrugging. "i can sense someone's magic in this thing, it's familiar too... i can't figure out who's magic it is though, but it made me  _feel_  irritated. not that it matters much because i still don't know what the thing does, nor why it would be useful."

Frisk frowned, staring at the orb. She could hear Sans tapping on the table.  _Tap-tap, tap-tap._  She ground her teeth, frustrated that they were still clueless about what this orb does.  _Tap-tap, tap-tap._  Sans had said that the orb contained someone's magic, but what did that mean? Was it like a pre-made spell, she pondered, ready to use by someone less experienced?  _Tap-tap, tap-tap._  Sans had said that the magic felt familiar, that means that they must have met the person who made the Artefact. Maybe if they figured out who's magic it was, they'd be able to ask them what the Artefact does?

_Tap-tap, tap-tap._

She looked up at Sans.

"Sans? Could you teach me how to look at the magic?" Frisk asked him gently. If anyone knew what an individual monster's magic felt like, it was her after all. How many times had she had to face each monster in an encounter? It had to be enough for her to be able to differentiate them all, right?

Sans looked down, looking a bit unsure, "alright, i'll teach ya, but be careful, alright, we still don't know what this does, an i can't have you getting hurt trying to help me fix  _my_  mistake."

"I don't mind Sans, I want to help," Frisk replied firmly.

Sans smiled, and pat her on the shoulder, "heh. okay, the first thing you need to do is put your hand on the artefact," Frisk obediently put her hand on it, and was surprised by how  _warm_  it felt. "now, close your eyes to focus, you should be able to sense it then."

Frisk nodded and closed her eyes and  _oh goodness she could feel it and it terrified her. No-nononon-no. She knew it but she didn't want to, she could not allow herself to think of it. Let go. Let go! LET GO!_

"kiddo!" Sans had grabbed her hand and forced it off the orb. Frisk was shaking. She had recognised that magic, but she could not bring herself to focus enough on it to figure out who's it was. She just knew that whoever's it was, they terrified her.

"are you alright?" Sans asked her gently, grabbing both of her shoulders, and she leant into his touch as it grounded her. She was safe. Sans wouldn't let anyone hurt her.

Taking a breath, she nodded, "I'm okay. I'm sorry Sans, I couldn't focus enough to figure out who's magic it was."

Sans looked relieved, "don't worry babybones, i'm just glad you're okay." He said pulling her into a tight hug, making Frisk smile.

When he pulled away they both looked back at the orb. They still had no clue what it did.

"Let's just give it to her." Frisk suggested, after  _that_ , she just wanted this over with. "If we don't she'll probably find somebody else to do it."

Sans nodded, "well, you're right there." He stared at the orb for a bit more, before sighing. "alright. we'll do it."

He picked up the orb and offered it to Frisk to carry, which she hesitantly accepted, refusing to look at it.

"i'm gonna need to be prepared for something to happen. to open the door for falmercia, i'm gonna have to give it a lot of attention and magic, which means i'm going to have to rely on you to warn me if the demon tries something. you see something, tell me and i'll close the door immediately." Sans asked and Frisk nodded seriously.

Sans grabbed Frisk's arm and Frisk saw as reality was ripped away from her, but it felt different. Frisk felt a breeze on at her back and she looked behind her to see that the living room was still visible, and it was as if she and Sans were standing at a doorway between two rooms. She was at a doorway, she realised, reality's door.

Frisk heard a loud, thunderous noise, so familiar, but it didn't make sense. It was the same sound from whenever the barrier was broken, but that was impossible, the barrier was all the way in Hotland, and they were in the gap between reality and the void.

The noise stopped, and Falmercia appeared alone. "I really must thank you for coming, you have no idea how long I have been waiting for this."

Sans had gritted teeth, he was obviously still working hard on keeping the door open, but his eyes were wide open and searching behind Falmercia, "yeah-yeah, we've got you the artefact, now where's gaster?"

Falmercia smiled, "Still in the void, I never intended on bringing him here."

Sans frowned, "what? you told me demons didn't lie? you said if we got you the artefact, you'd give us gaster!"

Falmercia chuckled, "I said that if you gave me the Artefact, I'd give you Gaster, but I never intended on accepting it."

Frisk scrunched her eyebrows, and Sans' eye-lights when dark, "what?"

"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet." Falmercia grinned smugly.

Suddenly, a dark shape began to creep into existence behind Falmercia, and her grin dropped and she sighed, "I suppose I really should have foreseen this." She turned her head slightly to speak to the now fully formed skeleton behind her. "Gaster, you - metaphorically - break my stone-cold heart."

Sans' eye-lights lit up again with hope, "dad!" he shouted to get Gaster's attention. Gaster looked briefly at Sans, a sad smile ghosting his face before he turned his attention back to Falmercia, face serious as he summoned two skeletal hands behind him.

Falmercia seemed to sense this, and turned to face Gaster, too slow however, and Gaster's hands took hold of her shoulders, and began to drag her back towards to void.

Falmercia snarled, "I can't let you take me back there, Gaster! I've put too much effort into this to let you stop me!" Falmercia summoned a quarterstaff and struck Gaster's left side, halting the hand's movements.

"Sans," Frisk tugged at Sans' arm, "maybe we should close the door."

Sans shook his head, "no, i can't leave dad behind." Frisk frowned and began to shift her weight from foot to foot anxiously as she watched the battle unfold in front of her.

Falmercia raised her staff to strike Gaster again and Frisk felt heaviness in the atmosphere increase, and Gaster's movement slowed as he moved to dodge Falmercia's attack, staff striking his leg and causing Gaster to collapse on the ground.

Gaster was not defeated yet, as he summoned a large Gaster blaster to blast Falmercia, which she dodged effortlessly. Falmercia's face was losing all emotion, her face now completely serious and her eyes dead.

Falmercia delivered two more harsh blows to Gaster, one on his left shoulder and one to his right forearm, and Frisk flinched when she heard a loud  _crack_  with each blow and before anyone could do anything, she took her staff and shoved it into his chest, and Gaster fell to the ground.

Falmercia took advantage of Frisk's and Sans' shock and escaped through the door that Sans had opened.


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can they save Gaster? What does Falmercia do next?

Snapping out of his shock, Sans moved into action, he raised his hand and held onto Gaster with his magic, and with a flick of his wrist sent Gaster flying past them and onto the lounge room couch behind them.

The white in front of them disappeared and Sans sighed in relief, showing Frisk that he had released his magic on the door and closed it. He looked incredibly tired, but he did not stop to rest and hurried to Gaster on the couch, checking his Soul.

**HP: 1/1500**

Frisk felt a shiver in her soul, that was  _ too _ close, just one more HP and Gaster would be dust, and this would have been for nothing. She looked to Sans, and what she saw filled her with concern; he was shaking and the look of guilt in his eye-sockets had come back.

Frisk flinched in surprise when their front door suddenly opened.

“THERE YOU ARE BROTHER AND SISTER! I WAS SO WORRIED WHEN I COULDN’T FIND YOU AT GRILLBY’S. WHO IS THIS? IS HE A RELATIVE OF FRISK’S?” Papyrus looked down and Gaster curiously.

“pap! thank goodness you’re here, dad’s been hurt, he could really use some healing magic right now.” Sans looked at Papyrus with desperation in his eye-sockets. Papyrus looked confused, but quickly went to work, his eye-lights glowed green and he gently touched Gaster’s soul. There was a collective sigh in the room as Gaster started to rapidly regain his health.

Papyrus, however, narrowed his eye-sockets, and Frisk couldn’t tell why until the HP suddenly stopped rising half-way.

“what’s going on, pap? why’d you stop?” Sans asked.

“I HAVEN’T BROTHER, IT APPEARS THAT THE REST OF THE DAMAGE MUST HEAL NATURALLY.” Papyrus explained gently, although he still didn’t seem to know what was going on, Frisk knew that Papyrus was at least capable of seeing that his own brother was distressed.

“but pap, you’re one of the best healers out there.” Sans protested.

“No, that is correct Sans, there is nothing Papyrus can do.” Frisk had forgotten that Gaster was still conscious until he had spoken. Sans seemed to have forgotten to as he turned to Gaster in surprise. “The weapon used by Falmercia is made out of her demonic magic, pure evil, such damage cannot be healed with the use of magic and only with time.”

Gaster’s voice was tired and wispy, and as Frisk listened, she suddenly realised that he was also speaking in another language. As for how she understood, she could only reason that it must have been a skeleton language or something, and she must have been able to understand it magically.

Sans seemed to have calmed down now, and his eye-sockets narrowed, “dad, how do you know this? what’s going on?”

Gaster frowned, face turning grim, “Falmercia was trapped in the void with me, and ashamedly, I had exchanged information with her to chase away insanity that would have come from isolation.” Gaster’s eyes flashed with urgency, “Sans, you must understand what you are dealing with!” Gaster moved to try to sit up but Sans held him down.

Gaster quickly gave up and explained from his lying position, “Falmercia is a demon that has been trapped in the void for several millennia, and she has been planning this escape since I fell into the void. A long, long time ago, she was the strategist behind a kinship of demons that conquered almost the entire world, and would have succeeded in controlling the whole world if Falmercia hadn’t fallen to her own sin. She abandoned her kin and they fell without her, humans and monsters allied together and captured her and eventually worked together to trap her in the void, sealing her in with a barrier… a barrier she needed a monster and human soul to destroy.”

Sans and Frisk looked at each other frowning, a new understanding of what they had just done. For humans  _ and _ monsters to have teamed up together in the past, Falmercia must have been a big deal, and they had just helped her escape.

“She is incredibly intelligent and extremely dangerous, you must be careful!”

Gaster also appeared to be feeling guilty and it was obvious to Frisk why, Gaster had said that Falmercia had only begun to plan her escape since he had fallen, so she must have needed some of the information that he had traded.

Frisk figured that she would at least try to use that information to good use, “When I’m around Falmercia, I feel more tired than usual, is that her magic?”

Gaster smiled somewhat proudly, “That is correct, I commend you for your observation. As a sloth demon, Falmercia has an aura of sloth, that increases in potency as she gains power, she is weak now from her time in the void, but I fear that if she gains more souls, it may become so powerful that we would no longer have the energy to fight back.”

Gaster’s gaze shifted back behind Sans and Frisk and at the wall, “Of course, that only refers to those who possess both a soul and a body, your highness.”

Frisk shivered and Sans’ eye-lights went out, “ _ chara. _ ”

Chara revealed herself, standing awkwardly, “Um… Hello!”

* * *

Falmercia took her time walking through Waterfall. Stage one of her plan was complete, time to move on to stage two. Stage three, would require a lot of work, too much effort as far as Falmercia was concerned, so she had decided that she needed to acquire some help, and she just so happened to be perfectly equipped to do so.

Smirking when she saw the particular prey she had in mind, she stopped in her tracks and gave a lady in a suit of armour a wave. Undyne stopped in her tracks also, before approaching Falmercia.

“Hi, you’re Undyne, right? Captain of the Royal Guard?” Falmercia asked, playing the part of a civilian requiring help to lower Undyne’s guard. 

Undyne hesitated, but took off her helmet, “YEP! That’s me.” Undyne’s unpatched eye narrowed, “Is there a problem? Someone causing trouble?”

Falmercia smiled, before offering her hand to shake, “Forgive me, it appears I have forgotten my manners again, I am Falmercia.”

Undyne looked at Falmercia’s hand before accepting it, “Nice to me-” Undyne shivered on contact with Falmercia’s hand.

_ So, she  _ can _ sense malicious intent, all the better. _

Undyne stared at Falmercia’s smiling face for a few moments, Falmercia knew that Undyne had sensed her intent, although she also knew that Undyne didn’t know exactly what it was.

“As for why we’re having this conversation, I heard that Asgore was just one human soul short of breaking the barrier, is that true?” Undyne nodded suspiciously. “Well, I have a human soul that I’m ready to exchange for a favour.” Falmercia raised her hand to reveal Frisk’s previous soul.

Undyne’s face filled hope and wonder, she no doubt thought that all her dreams were coming true. This was often Falmercia’s favourite part of making deals, when just after she offers something too good to deny, and the person she offered it too forgets caution and a  _ very _ important fact regarding Falmercia’s true nature.

“Favour?” Undyne asked, before shaking her head, “What am I saying? I’ll do anything!”

_ Bingo. _ “Deal.” Falmercia smirked, and for a second doubt flickered over Undyne’s face, which cut off into shock as Falmercia plunged the soul into Undyne’s chest and into her soul, forcing Undyne to absorb it.

“Well, now I have fulfilled my end of the deal,” Falmercia said, sadistic pleasure on her face as Undyne fell to her knees and clutched at her chest in pain. “And you did say you would do anything.”

Undyne’s form began to change as she completed absorbing the soul, it was a mostly familiar form, almost identical to her ‘Undyne the Undying’ form from Chara’s genocide runs, except the heart on Undyne’s chest was broken in two.

“So here is what I ask of you,” Falmercia began to cackle, “I need you to be my obedient soldier.”

Undyne’s transformation was complete, and she finally opened her eyes, both were pitch black with a green, glowing pupil.

“Yes ma-am.”

 


	13. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans decides what to do with Chara and Papyrus is finally informed of what the /hell/ is going on.

Chara revealed herself, standing awkwardly, "Um… Hello!”

Frisk unconsciously stepped behind Sans at the sight of Chara and clutched his arm. Her whole body trembled as she had flashbacks of Chara tormenting her and she could feel tears pooling up in her eye-sockets.

Sans was dead still, radiating a protective aura, staring right at Chara with his eye-lights out.

“WHY HELLO!” Papyrus greeted Chara, seemingly oblivious to Sans and Frisk’s stress. “HAVE WE MET BEFORE, YOU LOOK FAMILIAR FOR SOME REASON?”

Frisk stared in confusion as Chara’s eyes became glassy and an obviously forced smile appeared on her face, “Yeah, that-that’s normal, I have one of those faces.” Chara responded.

Papyrus nodded, before humming, “I HOPE YOU DON’T MIND ME ASKING, WHY DID THIS MAN CALL YOU…”

Chara laughs uncomfortably, “Well, a long time ago before I died… I was sort of adopted by King Asgore…”

Papyrus eyes lit up, “WOWIE!” And he rushed to the kitchen, “A ROYAL GUEST, MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME! I WILL PREPARE MY BEST SPAGHETTI!”

Even after Papyrus was out of hearing range, Sans only stared at Chara. Chara wrapped her arms around her chest.

In a quiet, shaky voice, she said, “I-I’m really sorry.” But Sans’ demeanour didn’t change, nor did he speak. That voice though, Frisk flinched every time Chara spoke.

“My memory was messed up… I-I, I thought that you all attacked me, betrayed me.” Chara fidgeted under Sans’ gaze, and Frisk could feel him trembling with rage.

Chara took a step forward, “It’s all Frisk’s fault in the first place! This wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t-!” Frisk whimpered under Chara’s accusation, which set Sans off.

“D o n ‘ t  y o u d a r e  p u t t h i s o n  h e r.” San’s voice was a low growl, the same tone he used when he called them a ‘dirty brother killer’, the tone terrified Frisk, but all the same she found herself touched that Sans cared about her enough to defend her like this.

Chara though, looked absolutely terrified, but looked down ashamed, “You’re right. I shouldn’t. Now that my memory has cleared up, I can tell that Frisk would have refused to hurt anyone, even if our roles were reversed.” She looked back up at Sans desperately, “Please! Let me make it up to you, I can start by helping you stop Falmercia!”

Sans closed his eye-sockets, as a judge he could tell that Chara was being genuine here. However, he just couldn’t trust her, the fact remained that it was in Chara’s character to harm others when the times were difficult, and her LV by now was just so high, it would be so easy for her to go bad again.

He could also feel Frisk shaking as she clutched his arm. That was the other issue he was having; Frisk was absolutely terrified of Chara, and accepting their help would be subjecting Frisk to that fear all the time. The babybones was obviously traumatised, that was obvious  _ before _ Chara’s appearance. No, he couldn’t do that to Frisk, if he wanted to stop Falmercia, he would need to find a way that didn’t involve terrifying his new little sister.

Sans sighed, why were things always so much work? He opened his eye-sockets, eyelights out “look. i can’t trust you right now, kid, and babybones here is obviously terrified of ya, so i’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Chara looked disheartened, she opened their mouth to say something, but they cut themselves off before the sad anything. They frowned and knitted their eyebrows, before storming off through a wall.

Well that was mildly troubling.

“SANS, WHERE DID OUR ROYAL GUEST GO?” Papyrus peeped his out of the kitchen.

Sans dropped his serious face and smiled lazily, “Sorry bro, they just left, I  _ guest _ they had somewhere they had to be.”

Papyrus groaned, “ _ SANS! _ IF YOU KEEP PUNNING AT THIS RATE, YOU’RE GOING TO INFECT FRISK. FRISK? SISTER ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!” Papyrus looked concerned towards Frisk, and Sans turned to see what had made Papyrus worried.

Sans’ soul sunk at the sight of Frisk’s crying face. Frisk having been caught by the two of them, turned her face to hide it in Sans’ hoodie.

“babybones…” Sans stepped away and pulled Frisk into a hug. “you don’t have to be afraid, i’m not going to let them hurt you again.” Sans could feel Frisk hesitantly nod against his chest in acknowledgement.

“HURT? SANS WHAT’S GOING ON? DID I MISS SOMETHING?” Papyrus didn’t seem happy at the idea of someone hurting Frisk, and Sans felt a small swell of pride in his chest. Papyrus earlier had asked him a few questions of what it was like to be an older sibling when Frisk was asleep, and it seemed that he was using Sans as a role model.

Sans frowned a bit though, lying to Papyrus had always been difficult, however he managed to do so in the past because wanted to maintain his brother’s innocence. 

 

Things were different now though, they had a new younger sibling, their father was back, Chara was sort off on the loose, and most relevantly, Falmercia was at large. It was very obvious to Sans that keeping Papyrus in the dark with a demon with the ability to enforce contract and who knows what was not a good idea. The idea of Falmercia tricking Papyrus into a deal crossed Sans’ mind, and a shiver ran down his spine.

“sit down bro, there’s something i have to tell you.” Papyrus looked confused, but nodded and Gaster sat up to make room, looking grim. Sans sat down himself, placing Frisk on his lap.

“sit tight bro, because this is gonna be a long one,” Sans started, before he told Papyrus everything.  _ Everything. _ He started with what happened when the two of them were kids, and what happened to their father, and Papyrus only looked at him with sympathetic eyes. Then he moved onto how Papyrus was ill as a child and Sans’ deal with Falmercia, and the after effects of said deal, and Papyrus had never looked so  _ guilty _ . He then gently eased onto Frisk’s story and the RESETS, and he honestly couldn’t tell who was the more terrified; Papyrus with his face of absolute horror, or Frisk who was shaking in his lap from the memories. Sans finished that part of the story with the deal that Frisk made with Falmercia to stop the endless cycle of suffering, and Papyrus jumped to pull Frisk into a hug, no longer able to contain his pity for the girl.

Sans waited for Papyrus to loosen his grip on Frisk before he continued, but his brother surprised him with a question, “So That Person Before, They Were This Chara That Tormented You And Our Sister In The Previous Timelines?” Papyrus’ voice was the quietest it had been since the two of them had been children, and Sans could see how seriously his brother was taking this.

Unable to form words at that moment, Sans just nodded, and Papyrus looked down at Frisk, “Sister, If That’s What Will Be Necessary To Keep You Feeling Safe, Then I, The Great Papyrus Will Keep This Chara Away From You, I Promise.” Frisk stared at Papyrus for a moment with complete shock on her face, before giving him a smile and giving a tight hug in gratitude, the scene warming Sans’ soul.

Sans waited a moment before completing his story, finally telling Papyrus about Falmercia’s last act of trickery and her escape after her fight with Gaster.

Papyrus looked down with a look of contemplation, “SANS… ARE YOU SURE THIS FALMERCIA PERSON IS THAT BAD?” Sans felt mixed feelings of both annoyance and pride in his brother’s determination to see the best in everyone.

“papy, she tricked us so many times, and as dad told us already, she was trapped in the void for good reason…” Sans reasoned.

“BUT SANS, SHE WAS TRAPPED IN THERE FOR SO LONG… MAYBE SHE WAS JUST LONELY AND DESPERATE?” Papyrus countered.

Sans sighed, realising that it was best he just appease his brother and move on, “… fine, maybe that’s possible, but bro,” Sans looked up at Papyrus with a serious look, “please promise that you’ll be careful, don’t let her trick you into a deal.”

Papyrus smiled optimistic, “NO NEED TO FEAR SANS! SHE WON’T FOOL THIS MASTER PUZZLE MAKER!”


	14. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk makes another attempt to summon her Gaster Blasters.

On the promise to be careful, Papyrus left the Skele-families house to warn Undyne and have her spread a warning to all the other sentries and the royal guard to keep a lookout for Falmercia. For some reason, Frisk had a bad feeling about this, but because she didn't have a good reason to, she stayed quiet.

She tugged on Sans' hoodie, "What do we do now?"

Sans looked down at her, "we don't know what falmercia is planning, or even where she is, so the best use of our time would probably be getting you able to summon your gaster blasters."

Frisk looked down ashamed, but nodded to show her agreement. "welp, let's go," Sans took her hand and headed towards the door.

Gaster stood up as well, and Sans stopped giving him a look, "Sans, please, I am well enough to at least watch. I taught you, so I know about these things, and if my suspicions are correct and our dear Frisk here is having trouble, finding out what the problem is the least I can do to help."

Sans looked conflicted, before sighing, "alright dad, you can watch."

The went back to the same clearing, Gaster sat on a nearby rock, with an intent look on his face.

"alright frisk, give it another shot. do you need me to guide you through it again?" Frisk shook her head, she remembered perfectly.

She managed to get a feel of her magic this time without needing to close her eyes, and just as easily as last time, she pulled so out the magic out in front of her, creating a barely visible blue mist. Now for the last part, letting go. She slowly started to loosen her grip on it, when a spike of anxiety consumed her soul and she gripped back tightly on it. She made a second attempt to loosen her grip and she found that she just couldn't, and the mist faded away, leaving her tired.

"that-that's okay frisk, you can have some rest before trying again." Sans said in a consoling tone, Frisk shook her head.

"I can give it another shot." She insisted, this time, pulling the magic out in front of her was effortless, and took no time at all, this time, a bit more shushed than before, she loosened her grip on the magic. Almost there, she had almost completely given up control… She gasped in panic and the magic dissipated.

"frisk! frisk, are you okay?" Sans gripped her shoulder, and she nodded, panic wearing off and leaving behind confusion.

"Y-yeah."

"If I may, I believe I have figured out the problem." Frisk hadn't heard him, but Gaster had approached the two of them, Sans and Frisk looked up and saw him looking down at Frisk with concern.

"dad, what's up?" Sans asked, a sickening feeling filling up his soul.

"From watching Frisk just now, it is clear for me to see that she has no issue with manipulating the magic itself, but rather the issue is something else completely. Every time she gets close to releasing her grip on her magic, her soul pulses with fear, anxiety. For some reason, she is subconsciously afraid…" From the look on Gaster's face, Frisk could guess that he knew more, but Gaster didn't explain any further.

"babybones, why are you scared?" Frisk turned her skull to see San's troubled face. "is it because… because of what happened in the previous timelines?" Frisk automatically flinched at their mentioning and Sans looked down with a guilty expression, Gaster frowned.

Frisk shook her head, "No! That not-"

"dad, can you watch after frisk for a while, i-i need a minute." Sans disappeared, taking a shortcut and Frisk sighed. She had messed everything up once again.

Gaster put a hand on her shoulder, "Do not fret, this is not your fault." Frisk didn't feel so reassured though.

"Mr Gaster?" She politely asked for his attention, looking up at him.

Gaster chuckled, "Sans and Papyrus have claimed you as their sister, have they not?" Frisk nodded, slightly confused, "Then I too accept you as part of our family." Frisk felt her magic rushing to her cheekbones, and she realised that she was blushing. "You can call me dad if you want, or just Gaster if you are uncomfortable with that, but you certainly do not have to call me 'Mr Gaster'."

"Thank you, dad." She tested out the word in her mouth, finding it wasn't too uncomfortable. She had never had a proper father figure in the past, her human father had always been at work, and although she had jumped at taking Toriel as a mother like a moth to flame, she and Asgore never really got to that kind of relationship, as Asgore had always been so guilty that he was never less than 120% respectful towards her, which made it difficult to form a comfortable relationship with him.

"So, um, dad…" Frisk started again, having a little difficulty as she no longer had the resolve she had before, "Is there anything else that Falmercia told you… about the souls that she gave Sans and I?"

Gaster looked down, "She did, though it has little importance now, it is because she is a sloth demon, the souls she creates will always be what she called 'sloth stained', and unfortunately, from what she told me, this condition is incurable." Frisk looked down, a feeling of hopelessness consuming her soul.

Gaster surprised Frisk by continuing, "That is why you and Sans are affected by Falmercia's aura than I was, and you will be more than anyone else, even those naturally slothful."

Frisk looked up at that, raising a non-existent eyebrow, "Falmercia's aura affects different people on different levels?" She asked.

Gaster nodded, "That is correct, the more slothful a person is, the more her aura effects a person, though… I do suspect that if one were to have enough DETERMINATION, they may be able to overcome the effects, but of course, that is only a theory."

Frisk nodded. A sudden feeling of guilt washed over her, she had been developing a theory on what the Legendary Artefact was, and now she wished Sans hadn't sent Chara away… Another thing that was Frisk's fault.

"BROTHER! SISTER!" Papyrus voice interrupted Frisk's thoughts, "I BELIEVE SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAS HAPPENED!" Sans was instantly back at Frisk's side.

"what's up, bro?" Sans asked as Papyrus ran up to them.

"I AM AWFULLY CONCERNED BROTHER, UNDYNE IS NOT AT HER STATION, AND NO-ONE I HAVE ASKED HAS SEEN HER SINCE THIS MORNING, THIS IS UNLIKE HER." Papyrus sounded worried.

Sans and Frisk shared a look, "papy, you stay here with gaster, frisk and i will go look for her, alright."

Papyrus looked like he wanted to protest, but nodded and took Gaster inside. Sans grabbed Frisk's hand and immediately took a shortcut to waterfall. When the room the entered was empty, he shortcut to another, and another, and another.

When that room didn't have Undyne, Sans sighed, he looked like he was going to teleport again when Frisk stopped him by tugging on his sleeve.

"what is it babybones?" he replied in a hushed tone. Frisk pointed to the room next to the one they were in, and Sans peered in. Inside there was a familiar yellow flower.

Sans and Frisk shared a look. What was Flowey doing here? The two decided to spy on Flowey to find out.

A shadow grew over Flowey.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," They heard Falmercia's voice, "I was uncharacteristically busy."

Frisk started to shake, and Sans leaned over to see why. A frown formed on his face as he saw Undyne in her latest form.


	15. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A battle against Falmercia and a powered up Undyne

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Falmercia apologized, "I was uncharacteristically busy."

Flowey gulped at the sight of Undyne, he hadn't seen her in this form before, and he could definitely sense the strength of a human soul coming off her in waves.

Falmercia chuckled, "Don't worry kid," Flowey growled at the lack of respect, "she's what I was busy with, she's under contract, so she's not going to lay a fin -giggle- on you… unless I say so, that is."

Flowey narrowed his eyes at Falmercia, still trying to figure out. Despite all his time from back when he had the power of RESET, he had never seen her before, so he could only go off what he had been told.

"And how did you manage that? Undyne has a strong will, DETERMINATION, even…" Flowey asked, maybe if he could get her to gloat he could gage her intelligence.

Falmercia's smile alone was enough for him to tell that she knew exactly what he was doing, but she answered anyway, "DETERMINATION means nothing, you see, we demons have a sixth sense of what other's desires are. It was quite easy to contract Undyne here, her greatest desire is to bring the underground's hopes and dreams into reality, all I needed to do was offer her the final human soul needed to break the barrier and as I knew she would, she offered to do anything for it."

Flowey noted her ability at reading others and predicting their choices, it was something that he, himself had only managed to learn through experience during the timelines, but Falmercia claimed to have a natural ability, and therefore, the advantage.

"After that, it was as simple as accepting her offer, forcing her to absorb the soul, and ordering her to be my soldier, easy-peasy."

Very obvious underlying message there; 'Don't underestimate me'. Flowey frowned, realising that of his usual skill set of intimidation and deception, either Falmercia outmatched him, or deemed his skill useless, but still…

"And where did you get this soul?" He wanted to know if she could pass the barrier.

"I believe you're familiar with Frisk, I'm the reason she's a skeleton now." Probably not then… Wait, Frisk's soul? Then that means…

"Then who has the most DETERMINATION in the underground?" Things were getting dangerous.

Falmercia's smile made him shiver, "That would be me, but obviously, not from dear Frisk's soul since Undyne has it." She said, gesturing to Undyne, Falmercia's smile dropped, "Which is rather unusual for a sloth demon, heh, we're usually too lazy to have any kind of DETERMINATION…"

That last bit grabbed Flowey's attention, and he filed it away for later, and instead focused on the important detail being that Falmercia had control of the timelines now, a most troubling thought.

"Moving on," Falmercia interrupted his concerned thoughts, "As for why I summoned you here, it is quite simple, I want to offer you, a contract."

Flowey was insulted, "And what makes you think that I am STUPID enough to make a deal with you just after your story about how you fooled Undyne!"

Falmercia's calm smile never faltered, "No tricks here, I promise, and demons can't lie, you know. What you're gonna get me is worth enough. All you gotta do is retrieve the six human souls-"

"Are you an IDIOT!" Flowey balked, "There's no way I'm going to give you that much power!"

Falmercia's smile widened and she tilted her head, and she replied in a sweet voice, "You forget dear, I know your greatest desires. I could get you your own soul, your old body back too, I mean, I know how much it troubles you to be stuck the way you are."

Flowey faltered, and instantly, he so desperately wanted to accept the deal. He knew that was what she was playing for, and there were probably unmentioned conditions, not to mention the still existing danger of all that power entering the demon's hands, but it was enough.

He could feel words of acceptance crawling up his throat, but he forced his mouth to stay shut. He had to keep his promise to his best friend. Nothing was worth more than that to him.

Falmercia's eyes widened from sensing his sudden rejection.

"It was a good offer, and under usual circumstances, but my best friend here made me promise not to make any deals with you, so no deal."

Falmercia's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing. The whole vibe surrounding her changed suddenly, and Flowey could swear that she was shaking in rage. Falmercia's eyes finally found what they were looking for and Chara made themself visible.

"You better be glad that you're incorporeal brat, because this is the second time you have stood in my way." Flowey sent a nervous glance to his friend, soulless or not, there was no way that he was allowing her to get hurt.

"Undyne, kill him, I want the brat to see their brother die!" Falmercia ordered, and suddenly blue spears were raining down on them, so many that Flowey couldn't count.

Still stuck in the ground, Flowey braced himself for impact knowing that there was no way that he'd be fast enough to dodge.

Seconds past and impact never came, and when he looked up he saw a skeletal Frisk summoning wall after wall of bones to block Undyne's attacks.

"good job, babybones, i didn't even need to teach ya. though i guess i shouldn't be too surprised, it is in your bones after all." Flowey heard Sans complement Frisk before hearing the loud indistinguishable sound of a Gaster Blaster attack.

The comedian? A skele-Frisk? What was going on? Why were they here?

Flowey shook his head, now was not the time for questions. He could see that Frisk was already getting tired, and Sans, the idiot, was sending his attacks at Undyne.

Flowey sighed, smiling, these fools needed his guidance so badly it wasn't even funny. Flowey watched Frisk's bone shield carefully, and in the split second between it breaking down and her summoning a new one, he shot a wave of friendliness pellets, not at Undyne like a fool, but at Falmercia, who had just been standing back lazily enjoying the show.

Falmercia, as he predicted, was caught off guard and dealt damage. Flowey winced as he saw the damage bar, seeing he hadn't dealt much damage at all.

The next time the bone shield broke Falmercia had summoned her quarterstaff and carelessly deflected his friendliness pellets, an irritated look on her face.

This obviously wasn't working, if Flowey couldn't think up a new plan, they were all toast. Problem is, they he was completely out of options. As stupid as it was to attack Undyne with her power levels so high, despite it dealing little to no damage, it made Undyne halt in her attacks long enough for Frisk to summon another bone-shield.

There was another gap and Flowey hopelessly shot more friendliness pellets at Falmercia. He considered running away and leaving Frisk and Sans to deal with these two by themselves, but turned that idea down, Chara said that they wanted them alive.

Another gap, more friendliness pellets shot to be deflected, but Flowey noticed the gaps between Frisk's shields were getting larger, and taking a look at her, he could see she was utterly exhausted. Anytime now and they would be done for.

"Uuugh, this isn't worth the effort!" Flowey heard Falmercia complain, "Undyne! Change of orders, cover my escape then retreat after me."'

The rain of spears died down, thirty seconds of nothing passed where Frisk stood stubbornly, keeping up her damaged shield with disbelief on her face. Exhaustion however claimed her and she dropped the shield and fell back into a sitting position.

"babybones!" Sans was somehow at Frisk's side in a split second, "are you alright?"

Frisk nodded and the two began to talk about something, but Flowey didn't listen, instead staring in awe at the empty clearing, the floor littered with discarded spears and dent marks, Falmercia and Undyne no longer anywhere to be seen.

What had just happened? How are they all still alive?


	16. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn things about demons and team Skelefamily has a talk.

Falmercia, once at a distance, stopped and checked the room for other entities once more, seeing the room was empty she checked her stats. Frowning, she looked at the damage she took, she couldn't believe that Flowey had managed to catch her off guard, with his levels, it shouldn't have even been impossible for him to hurt her, yet the damage had been made.

She reluctantly conjured her soul to heal the damage. It was natural for a demon to be reluctant to look at their soul, it's physical manifestation was a reminder of exactly why they were considered damned.

A demon's soul was point side down, similar to a human's, but was solid black and bound by two chains. These chains each locked away an aspect of humanity that demons lacked. One chain was said to lock away deeper emotion, the reason why demons had nothing but shallow feelings and lacked emotional tied. The second chain was said to lock away a demon's conscience, removing them of the ability to feel any kind of remorse for their actions.

Falmercia gasped as she saw the state of her soul, particularly at one of the chains, where one of the links had been cracked. Could the weed have done this? No, she had taken worse hits in her lifetime.

It must have been her past insanity from the time in the void, she  _had_  been there for a long time, long enough to actually lead her to  _do_  something to get out.

She considered attempting to fix the chain with her soul magic, but decided against it. Demons might be naturally talented at soul magic, but the creator of the chains was simply far more  _powerful_  than her. It was best not to touch.

She reached to her soul and healed her damage before shoving it back into her chest.

She sensed Undyne approach her from behind, she turned to face them and CHECKED her. Only a small amount of damage had been done, but still, "Conjure your soul," Falmercia ordered.

Undyne nodded and summoned her soul obediently. Falmercia reached to the soul and healed the damage instantly.

—

Frisk and Sans had brought Flowey and Chara back to the Skele-family's house, and after a small debate between Papyrus and Sans; Sans, Frisk, Papyrus, Gaster, Flowey and Chara all sat spread out across the living room.

"So, you're saying that you two IDIOTS released an ultra-powerful demon onto the underground and now it's  _OUR_  job to stop her. Nah ah, not doing it, we almost died over there, if it wasn't for Falmercia being too lazy to finish the job, I mean, what would have happened if she hadn't called it quits?" Flowey complained loudly.

Chara, who was next to him hummed, "I'm more curious to why she didn't use her soul magic on us? I saw her use it on Frisk before, and that stuff is more advanced than mages on the surface could do when I was alive, I mean, what she did wasn't even mentioned in legends."

Automatically, Sans and Frisk turned to Gaster for answers, and he shook his head, "I never traded for information on soul magic. Even from my time researching soul magic as a scientist I never learned much on that matter."

Frisk frowned and tried to recall all the times that Falmercia had used her soul magic, unfortunately, she had only seen one, and heard of another, and of the two, she only knew one thing they had in common, "Maybe she requires a contract to use it?"

Sans shrugged, "that would make sense, it could be possible that she needs magical consent to interact with souls but… nar, couldn't be, she didn't make a contract with papyrus, but she fixed him up."

Frisk's eye-sockets widened in confusion, "Wait, that was soul magic?"

"Well duh," Chara answered as if it were obvious, "it would need to be, since the problem originated there."

"WHO CARES WHY SHE DIDN'T USE HER SOUL MAGIC?!" Flowey shouted, "She was probably just too lazy to use it." Frisk and Chara shared a look, not satisfied with the offhand explanation. Frisk's eye-sockets widened when she realised what she was doing, and she averted her eyes.

"Which is another reason we should all just give up before we manage to piss her off enough to be 'worth the effort'." Flowey continued, and Papyrus flinched at the curse.

"watch your language around my bro, weed." Sans warned, adding, "and around frisk just to be sure."

Flowey rolled his eyes.

"We cannot just let Falmercia do whatever she wants, she could hurt a lot of people." Frisk tried to explain.

Flowey laughed, "I don't care! She could kill everyone in the entire underground for all I care!" He shouted again, turning to Chara and adding in a quiet voice. "Except you, Chara of course. Come on, let's leave these idiots!"

Chara shook their head and refused to move, "I can't Flowey, I also played a part in this, so I feel responsible. If it were not for me, Frisk would have never of made the deal that allowed Falmercia to escape in the first place."

"Ch-chara…" Flowey looked down conflicted, "Fine, I'll help, just for you."

Chara smiled, "Thanks." Flowey huffed.

"Well then, how do you guys plan on defeating her? She said it herself, she has all the determination, you defeat her, and she'll just RESET." Flowey asked, finally getting on board.

Frisk shakily put her hand up, "Um… I-I-I have an idea." She got up and turned to Sans, "I'm really sorry." Sans raised an eyebrow in confusion and watched as Frisk went to the kitchen where the Legendary Artefact was being kept and carried it into the room.

"I think I've figured out what it does." She said looking down.

"and what's that, babybones?" Sans asked, but Frisk ignored him and turned to Chara, tears pooling out of her eye-sockets.

"Can you promise that we can trust you?" She asked them with a shaky voice, "That you won't hurt anybody?"

Chara looked confused, but answered, "Yeah, I promise, definitely, but why?"

Frisk nodded and brought the Artefact up to Chara, and her ghostly form was absorbed into the orb.

"HEY! What did you do to Chara, she promised you didn't she?!" Flowey protested, and Frisk threw the Artefact to the ground, shattering it and filling the room with smoke.

They heard coughing, and when the smoke faded, Chara was kneeling on the ground, with a human body.

"*cough, cough* What was that?" They asked, raising their hand in front of them, not believing that it was actually there.

"Falmercia never wanted the Artefact, she just wanted a reason to offer to bring Gaster back… When I saw you again after Falmercia escaped, I recognised where I felt the magic from the Artefact before… it was yours. And the puzzle to get into the Artefact room was the music from Asriel's statue… it got me thinking…

"The Legendary Artefact was the crystallised remains' of Asriel's dust, it must have turned red because of the DETERMINATION from your soul which he absorbed. Asriel's essence was absorbed by the flowers though and became Flowey… So…" Frisk gestured to Chara, who finished.

"So, you figured what was left must have been my essence, well a fraction of it, and returned the remaining part of my soul to the Artefact to complete it and reform my body. And you were so stupid when you first fell I must have rubbed off on you." Chara smirked standing up.

Sans frowned, "but babybones, why'd you do that for? it still doesn't fix the problem, falmercia said she was more DETERMINED than you, chara's not going to compare."

Frisk shook her head forcefully, "No, Chara was always more DETERMINED than me, but because she didn't have her complete soul before, she couldn't access it."

Sans blinked, and looked to Chara, "that true?" he asked.

Chara slowly nodded, "Then that means… now I can…" Chara lifted her hand and the menu popped up, their eyes shone with hope as they went to press the SAVE button to test it out, but the button didn't respond, making them frown.

"It appears that we are equally DETERMINED, so neither of us can SAVE or LOAD, let alone RESET."

Flowey blinked in awe, "So… what you are saying, is that we have a chance?"

Chara nodded, smiling.


	17. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The epic battle begins!

"so, i think we all understand here what Falmercia's next move's gonna be. she's going to go for the souls, and if we don't stop her now, we have no chance of stopping her in the future." Sans said getting up.

Chara nodded, "I'm pretty sure she already knows where they are, so we are going to need to hurry to intercept her," they sent a smirk to Sans, "not that that's going to up problem with Mr. shortcut here."

Sans nodded, took a deep breath in and offered out his arms, "alright, babybones, chara, grab on. flowey can get there by himself."

Flowey nodded and popped back into the ground, Frisk quickly grabbed onto Sans' arm, while Chara hesitantly approached him.

"SANS, I WANT TO HELP TOO! LET ME COME." Papyrus pleaded, getting up from the lounge.

Sans shook his head, "nuh ah, it's too dangerous."

Papyrus frowned, "BUT-"

"frisk and i have fought Falmercia before, we know what to expect… plus we're responsible for all this." Sans explained.

"BUT, SANS… I'M SURE I CAN CONVINCE FALMERCIA TO STOP ALL OF THIS. I COULD OFFER TO HELP HER BECOME A BETTER PERSON." Papyrus pleaded again.

Chara sighed, "I'm sorry Papyrus, but you tried the exact same thing with me in all of the previous timelines, and it didn't work, what makes you think it will work on a demon?"

Papyrus looked down disappointed, Sans wanted to comfort him, but Chara reminded him that time was of the essence and he took a shortcut to just outside of the CORE.

"sorry, but we'll have to get inside before i can shortcut us further, shortcuts into the core from the outside can be dangerous," Sans explained, he  _really_  didn't want the CORE's magic interfering with his short cut with Frisk with him.

The two children nodded and moved to go in when a bunch of guards charged out of the CORE.

"what's going on?" Sans asked one of them, he had a feeling the Falmercia was involved in this somehow.

"The bridge leading into Hotland has been set on fire! This side doesn't have enough water to put it out, and with Undyne missing the royal guards in Waterfall are having difficulty organising themselves. King Asgore himself is leading the effort to put out the fire. I'm sorry, but I must help!" The guard answered before running off.

"Falmercia must have set the bridge on fire as a diversion to avoid having to fight the guards and Asgore," Chara said, showing the same thought process that Sans was having.

"which means she probably is already inside, quick let's go." Sans grabbed Frisk's hand and rushed inside the core, once he was in far enough to make another shortcut, he grabbed Chara by the shoulder and teleported directly to the barrier room, where the souls were kept.

They were already too late, Falmercia was already here. All Sans could do was stare in horror at the broken jars that had once held the human souls inside.

He was very aware of the feeling of Falmercia's aura increasing in strength, becoming stronger and stronger that it made him feel like he was choking, but in reality, he was just losing the energy to breathe, he managed to look down, and he could see that little Frisk was having the same problem, but since she was less used to feeling tired than he was, she had fallen to her knees.

Chara was less affected, glowing red with DETERMINATION, they stood normally, shoulders only slightly slouched. It appeared that her DETERMINATION was giving her a resistance as Gaster had theorised.

Sans saw that Flowey had popped up, and he didn't appear to be affected at all, not having a soul.

Sans looked for the last person he needed to check for; Undyne. Undyne like Chara, seemed to have a resistance to the aura, but unlike Chara's, it was nowhere near as affective, she was slouched over completely, and visibly leaning on her spear.

"Oh, you're here." Falmercia said, turning towards them as she absorbed the last soul. "Well that saves me trouble of having to go after you."

Sans didn't wait for Falmercia to finish talking and immediately summoned a Gaster Blaster.

"I wouldn't if I were you." Falmercia interrupted him, "I went through the effort of coming up with this speech now you're going to listen, besides," Falmercia conjured her staff and gave it a twirl for show, "It's not a bad deal, by listening, you get a few extra minutes to live."

Sans stood down, dismissing his Gaster Blaster, it might be the aura talking, but stalling didn't seem too bad of an idea, might give him a chance to get used to this feeling… yeah, that was it.

"Good boy," Falmercia said degradingly, "you see, most demons with the power of seven human souls would use them to cause chaos and get  _more_  souls, all to get to the goal of world domination, but me, I've already gone down that path, and it only told me one thing."

Falmercia paused and frowned, "The more power you get, the more effort it takes to keep it. Take over a kingdom, the surrounding kingdoms will invade, take over a continent, the surrounding continents will also give it a shot. And for what? I don't  _need_  the power of a country. I realised back then, that all I wanted was a nice comfortable bed to sleep on and no one to bother me,

"So that's what I did, I abandoned my kinship; my siblings, the  _only_  six beings that would ever consider allying with me, and made a deal with some monster inn keeper, I save his kid, get a permanent room. I stayed in that room for thirty years and did nothing, my siblings fell without me long ago, but mortals just couldn't forget, couldn't let me go. So, then they found me and I got trapped in the void for so long that  _I_ was willing to do whatever it took to get out!" Falmercia was visibly shaking with rage at this point, and needed to calm down before continuing.

Chara took this as an opportunity to speak, "So this is revenge?" She asked.

"No! Don't mistake me for my brother! No, this is more practical than that. I'm going to use these souls to take over the UNDERGROUND SO NO ONE CAN BOTHER ME AGAIN!" Falmercia screamed, before stopping, eyes going wide and a look of confusion appearing on her face.

Sans didn't waste his time trying to figure out what it was, and instead used this as an opening for his attack. He summoned his Gaster Blasters and aimed them all directly at her, and she was still too out of it to notice until they hit her.

Sans' eye-sockets widened when he saw the impact on her health, the initial damage was as small as always, but the damage that his Karmic Retribution caused took out a quarter of her health bar.

"Now where'd you learn a trick like that?" Falmercia asked, head back in the game. Sans wasn't given the time to react as she started to spout out orders to Undyne.

"Undyne, I want you to take Sans and Frisk, don't let them leave the range of my aura, I'll take Flowey and Chara."

Chara felt a spike of fear as they realised who they were up against. Shaking their head to brush off the fear and instinctively gripped onto their anger, they pulled out their knife and took the offensive.

Falmercia didn't even block as Chara's knife sliced through her chest, and Chara's eye's widened as Falmercia's health went  _up_  slightly.

"That's some  _nice_  intent you got there," Falmercia goaded.

"W-what?" They asked in disbelief as Falmercia slammed her staff against their side and sent them flying back.

"I'll explain it to you," Falmercia said as she started to walk towards Chara, "Monsters are weak to ill intentions because they are made of love, kindness and compassion, while me?" Falmercia smirked.

"I am entirely made of L.O.V.E."


	18. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The great battle continues!!

Even when Falmercia moved away from them, her aura was still heavy and Frisk felt like she was choking. Undyne sent a few spears at them and Frisk barely managed to raise her shield to defend them.

Panting, she looked around to see that Flowey had left them to partner up with Chara. When her shield broke down, Sans was prepared and raised his own wall of bones, the two looked at each other.

Were the really going to fight Undyne? It didn't appear that they had a choice, but, Undyne wasn't here of her own free will.

Sans' wall broke down and Frisk summoned her shield, this was exhausting, and Frisk gratefully noticed that Undyne was being affected by the aura too, even if it was nowhere near as much, and the gaps in time between spears were much wider than normal.

Frisk glanced at Sans again, and the conflict on his face was obvious, as was its reason; they couldn't do this forever, they were going to need to fight back.

Frisk's shield broke again and Sans took his turn at defending the two. Frisk felt the urge to take action, do something, but she didn't know any attacks, but there was something that she needed to say, something that she had been holding back for a while…

"Sans, I need to tell you something." Sans sent her a glance of concern, before looking back at his bone wall and adding an extra layer to it.

"what is it babybones?" The worry in his voice gave Frisk the confidence to go through with this and tell him.

"I'm not afraid of the Gaster Blasters… that's not my problem." Frisk explained as Sans' wall broke expectantly, a spear flew past her inches from her face and she quickly raised a bone shield to prevent another.

"babybones!" Sans shouted as a late reaction to the spear, showing his own exhaustion, but after seeing that she was alright, he continued the conversation, "then what's the problem kiddo, you can tell me."

"I'm scared!" Tears pooled in her eye-sockets, "I'm scared of losing control again and accidentally hurting you again!" She cried, it had taken her a bit of thinking to realise this, and had only figured it out when she restored Chara's body, but at the same time, she felt that some part of her knew it all along.

Sans appeared confused for a second, before sighing and smiling at her lightly, "babybones, do you want to hurt me or papyrus?"

"No!" Frisk cried immediately, Sans chuckled.

"Then the blasters wont, they may have minds of their own, but your blasters are still an extension of  _you_  they would never do anything that you wouldn't."

This revelation felt like someone had taken all the weight off her shoulder bones.  _Really?_ She thought,  _I don't have to risk hurting anyone?_

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw the spear being thrown at them change colour to yellow, and fly around her shield and right at them.

* * *

Chara watched in horror as Falmercia swiped her staff down at her with deadly force, and all Chara could do was hopelessly raise her arms to defend herself.

Chara heard a crash and moved her arms out of the way to see Falmercia on the wall at the other side of the room, two vines holding her back.

"Chara, are you okay?" Flowey, asked her, and Chara nodded.

"Thank goodness, I was worried 'bout you there." Flowey turned his attention back to Falmercia when she tangled her staff in Flowey's vines and used it to rip their connection to him.

Chara snarled and charged at Falmercia to make another attack, only getting more frustrated when she saw Falmercia's health rise again.

Falmercia chuckled mockingly and used her staff to flick Chara back like a ragdoll.

Damn, that hurt, and Chara watched her heath go down nine HP, and she suddenly wished she had the foresight to grab some healing items before they left.

"Chara!" Flowey shouted, and drew Falmercia's attention with a few waves of friendliness pellets, bringing Falmercia's health down a notch.

What was going on? Flowey had more LOVE then  _she did_ , how come he was lowering Falmercia's heath while she was raising it? It didn't make sense.

Chara charged at Falmercia again, and Falmercia didn't even make an attempt to block Chara's attack, instead chuckling when her health rose again.

Flowey sent more friendliness pellets at Falmercia which she deflected with her staff.

What was different? What was different?

"Chara, get back!" Flowey cried as Falmercia made a swipe at Chara. Before she could make impact, Flowey slammed his vines against Falmercia, slamming her back against the wall and doing a sizable amount of damage.

Chara's eyes widened in realisation. Flowey wasn't attacking out of LOVE, or anger, or hate, or revenge, his intentions were all about  _protecting_  them. His intentions weren't malicious, they were  _good_  intentions, and if LOVE made Falmercia's HP rise, then love must make it go down.

Chara jumped back and closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She forced herself to let go of her anger, and remember why she was doing this in the first place; to redeem herself.

Chara made another charge at Falmercia, making a slice at her chest, dealing a full quarter of damage.

"What?" Falmercia's voice sounded nervous, "No, no, no… NO!" Falmercia's face lost its earlier playfulness and taunting, and became serious, just like before when she made her final moves on Gaster.

Chara tried to get away from Falmercia, but was too late as Falmercia's staff slammed into her at full strength.

* * *

Frisk felt Sans' hand grab her and a Familiar pull on her soul, when she came back to her senses, they were standing in a different part of the room.

A breath of relief escaped her, until it choked her when she saw Sans' legs buckle from exhaustion. The shortcut must have cost him too much energy and now he was paying the price.

Undyne appeared to be confused on their whereabouts, and Frisk realised this was because Undyne had never seen them shortcut before, so Frisk realised she had a few moments before the fighting would start again.

She considered trying to make a bolt for it, but Falmercia was in the way of their exit, and there was no way that she would be able to make it with Sans unable to move.

Which made her go for plan B. This one filled her soul with dread. She had never wanted to hurt someone before, but it appeared that if she wanted to keep her brother alive, she'd have to.

Frisk focused on her soul and drew out her magic in front of it, she began to let go of her control over it when she felt a spike of fear again. She forced herself to stare at Chara.  _Chara has a body now, I am in control. My Gaster Blasters are an extension of me, they won't hurt anyone I care about._  Suddenly, Frisk felt her grip on her magic release, and Gaster Blaster formed into existence.

It was a lot smaller than Sans', about the size of her head, but that made her realise something. If Sans' Gaster Blasters were smaller that Papyrus', and he could summon more, than that means that she must be able to summon more than Sans.

Now she had a feasible plan. Repeating the process a few times, Frisk summoned five more Gaster Blasters, although they took a lot of energy to summon, they didn't make her tired to keep them summoned.

Frisk pointed in circles around Undyne, "Fly around Undyne… blast her every now and then to get her attention and distract her… Blast any spears she sends at us." The blasters set off to do just that and Frisk got to watch them successfully distract Undyne enough to keep her from spotting the two skeletons for a few seconds before Frisk's legs buckled and she slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

Falmercia's attack landed hard, and Chara slammed down on the ground, her heath dropping down to one. Falmercia stalked up to her, raising her staff to deal the final blow, before Flowey planted himself in front of Chara to take the hit, his HP also dropping down to one.

Falmercia grunted with annoyance, and raised her staff again to deal her final blow to Chara.

Falmercia's movements halted when she senses another presence as her eyes widened in fear. Suddenly her instincts were screaming at her to run away, leave this place, or else she was going to die.

Her eyes darted to the entry of the room and her shoulder slumped when she saw who it was.

"You never were one for sloth," She commented.

Papyrus stood tall and completely unaffected by Falmercia's aura. Falmercia's aura, even this strong, could only multiply the existing sloth in a person's character, and Papyrus had none.

What's worse, Papyrus was always filled with nothing but the best of intentions. By keeping him so innocent, Sans had unknowing created the ultimate weapon against her, Falmercia joked in her head.

Papyrus' eyes were sad, and he took a step closer. Falmercia felt another sharp spike of fear in her chest and she raised her staff to guard her body instinctually.

"Stay away!" She cried. Papyrus could do it, he could actually kill her, it would be so easy, he would barely need to try, just one bad touch could kill her.

"DEMON… WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?" Papyrus asked, taking another step towards her. Falmercia took another step back.

"Don't come any closer!" She snarled, but Papyrus remained unaffected.

"IS IT BECAUSE YOU ARE HURTING?" What was he going on about? She was a demon, demons don't feel true pain.

"EVEN IF THAT ISN'T THE CASE, I BELIEVE YOU CAN DO BETTER! YOU CAN BE A BETTER PERSON!" Papyrus took another step closer. The others were starting to gain consciousness, and they were all sending worried glances at Papyrus.  _Fools, they didn't know how dangerous he was to her._

"You realise, that I'm a demon, right?" Falmercia asked, not hiding her disbelief, Papyrus had to be crazy if he really thought that she could be a better person, heck, she wasn't even a person, she was a  _thing_ , a thing which's purpose was to cause pain.

"SO?" Papyrus asked, not getting her point.

"Meaning I literally cannot be a better person." Falmercia explained in exasperation.

"WHO TOLD YOU THAT?" Papyrus asked, troubled.

"ONLY EVERYONE I'VE EVER MET!" Falmercia shouted, why was this so hard for him to understand?

Papyrus' eye-sockets softened, "THAT'S HORRIBLE! SO NO ONE HAS EVER BELIEVED IN YOU BEFORE?"

_What? Was he feeling pity? For a demon? What WAS this guy?_

"THEN DON'T WORRY, DEMON! BECAUSE, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN BE A BETTER PERSON!" Papyrus said confidently.

"Are you really saying that? Knowing everything that I have done?" Falmercia couldn't believe what she was hearing, there was  _no way_ , she had hurt the people he cared about too much.

"THAT'S RIGHT, DEMON! I BELIEVE IN YOU, YOU CAN BE A BETTER PERSON, I PROMISE!"

_Cling!_

The loud sound of a chain breaking filled the room and Falmercia's knee's buckled and she clung to her chest in pain.

"DEMON? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Papyrus asked concerned.

Tear's fell down Falmercia's face against her will as she was overcome with powerful emotion.

 _What was this?_   _WHAT WAS THIS?_

"DEMON? WHY ARE YOU CRYING?" Falmercia heard Papyrus's words, but she was too distracted by this feeling in her chest. She had never felt anything like this before.

She realised what just happened, and it terrified her.

"DEMON? DEMON?" Papyrus called desperately for her attention.

Falmercia took a deep breath before sighing and putting on a mask of annoyance.

After making a fake sigh, she said, "Fine, whatever, I surrender."

There was silence for a few moments, and Falmercia observed everyone's reactions of pure shock.

After a few seconds, Sans shouted to Chara, "hey chara, how does it feel to be worse than a literal demon?"

"Shut up Sans!" She shouted back.

Papyrus was beaming, "REALLY?!"

Falmercia nodded, "Yeah, alright, let's get this surrender contract over with. In return for a no-attack agreement, where neither I hurt any of you and none of you hurt me, I am willing to break of my contract with Undyne, give a soul to Flowey and stay under your supervision for the rest of Frisk's natural life."

"… wait, what?" Sans asked in confusion. Falmercia sighed in annoyance, not liking that she now had to make the effort of explaining. Just for good measure this time, she dropped her aura to make sure they had clear minds.

"I am surrendering to you. When a demon makes a formal surrender, their surrender is bound by a surrender contract, too keep them from breaking said surrender." She explained in small sentences.

"ok, ok, but what's all this about giving souls and breaking contracts?" Sans asked.

Falmercia rolled her eyes in annoyance, "What, that good enough for ya? Fine, I'll also break the RESET button for you, but I DEMAND that in the contract I have dibs of being Papyrus' best friend." The words escaped her mouth before she knew it, and she had no idea why. It was a sudden impulse that left everyone – save Papyrus himself – staring at her like she had grown an extra head. She couldn't blame them,  _she'd_  be staring at her like she had an extra head if she could.

"WOWIE! IS THIS BECAUSE OF MY PROMISE?" Papyrus asked.

A possible explanation, she was still not used to these positive emotions she was having, so she was still unsure, but she couldn't let them know that. "Yeah… sure."

Sans continued to look at her funny, but looked down and considered her terms.

"you know what… i'm in."


	19. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Falmerica makes a final deal.

Falmercia sighed and sat on the floor.

"What do you mean you're in?" Flowey protested, "You more than anyone knows that Falmercia can't be trusted!"

Sans sighed, "i'm tired. look, we know that she can't lie, and i have a feeling that there's something going on that we don't understand. the deal seems good, so why not trust it?"

Sans caught Falmercia sneaking a glance at him, confirming his suspicions. Something was up, that noise earlier didn't come from nowhere.

"DEMON, YOU DIDN'T ANSWER ME, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" How was it that Papyrus, naïve as he was, managed to be more perceptive than him?

Sans caught Falmercia wincing, "Heh, I'm only in agonising pain, nothin' that you need to worry about." Falmercia dismissed.

Agonising pain?

"I  _know_  we didn't deal enough damage to you to cause that much pain. Not with the stats you have." Chara pointed out, eye's narrowed.

Sans CHECKED Falmercia, Chara was right. He stared at Falmercia to prompt an explanation.

Falmercia remained silent for a good minute before breaking, "Ugh,  _look_ , Papyrus here  _somehow_  managed to deal a lot of damage to a fundamental part of my soul. Damage that has never been done to  _any_  demon before, so please, accept the deal so I can check it out!" Falmercia spoke quickly in frustration, fear lingering in her voice.

"welp, i'm in." Sans accepted the deal.

"Me too," Frisk said quietly.

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ALSO ACCEPT!" Papyrus joined in quickly.

Chara stared at Falmercia for a moment longer, before accepting, "Fine, I also accept, but if you hurt  _any_  of them, I swear…"

Flowey looked at everyone in disbelief, "You're all IDIOTS, but fine, I accept."

Falmercia nodded impatiently before waving her arm, a familiar looking sloth-stained soul appeared in front of her, "It's technically not  _exactly_  the same a Boss Monster soul, but it's the best I can do." Falmercia explained before flicking her wrist at Flowey.

Flowey glowed so brightly that all the mortals in the room had to look away, when the light died, Sans looked back to see Asriel looking like he was in his old body.

Next, Falmercia reached in Undyne's direction, Undyne fell to her knee and Sans frowned. He almost raised an attack on Falmercia when he saw a red soul force its way out of Undyne's chest and into Falmercia's hand.

"And like that, the contract is broken," Falmercia said bored. Undyne's armour disintegrated away into dust that blew away to reveal her normal armour. Undyne blinked a few times before falling unconscious from exhaustion.

Probably for the best, Sans realised. He didn't want to have to deal with Undyne right now.

"And now that I have Frisk's soul and its DETERMINATION, I can do this." The RESET button hovered in front of Falmercia and for a flicker of a second, Sans worried that Falmercia just might betray them and press it, but instead, she smashed her hand through it, the button crumbling into nothing.

"And that's all, you can't hurt me, and I can't hurt you." Falmercia looked around the room, looking for objections, there was none.

She raised her hands to her chest and brought out a black soul, with one chain wrapped around it, and a second crumbling away.

Sans narrowed his eyes at the sight and moved closer. Falmercia instinctively flinched away but allowed him to get closer.

"i'm guessing it's not supposed to look like that." Sans pointed out the obvious.

Falmercia shook her head, "The chain's broken."

Sans stared at it a moment longer, watching as Falmercia tugged the remains of the broken chain off of her soul and it faded into nothing.

"and, what did it do?"' He asked.

"Each of the chains has a different purpose," Falmercia explained in a rushed voice and obvious discomfort. "The first chain, the one that broke, stops demons from feeling emotions like you mortals do, the other here, stops us from feeling remorse."

She said it so simply, but the implications blew Sans away. So basically, up until now, Falmercia was a sociopath, but now she could feel like a regular person. Could he even judge her as the same person? Yes. Yes, he could, this wasn't like Flowey and Asriel, she could still feel, if not on the same level.

Still, Sans watched as Falmercia fearfully put her soul away, sighing in relief as it went out of sight. Falmercia had never experienced emotions on this level before, so she pretty much had the emotional maturity of a seven-year-old. How old was Frisk again? Oh yeah, twelve. Frisk was more emotionally mature than this centuries-old demon.

Sans sighed, why was the universe making it so difficult for him to hate the 'bad guys'?

Sans heard heavy footsteps enter the throne room and he realised that the King must be back and the fire must have been put out.

"Oh good, my next contractor is here," Falmercia said, having calmed down a bit she seemed to be back to her usual annoyingly confident and bored self.

Sans narrowed his eye-sockets at her, and she smiled lazily in response.

"Don't worry, you'll like this one." She said as Asgore walked in.

"Howdy, who are yo- Asriel, Chara?!" Asgore stared at Asriel in shock, and Asriel ran up and hugged his father, Chara guiltily following him.

"Dad!" Asriel cried tears of joy.

"My son! How did this happen?" Asgore asked, gently pulling away to see Asriel's face.

"It's a long story, but, um, Falmercia here sort of had a lot to do with it." Asriel pointed at the demon, who waved lazily from her position on the floor.

"Hey, I'm a demon, but don't worry, 'cause right now I'm bein' a nice one." Falmercia yawned and stretched. "Doin' this was part of a contract. And if you're willing to hear me out, I wanna offer a contract to you too."

"To me?" Asgore asked, narrowing his eyes in confusion.

"Well, I have seven souls, so I can open the barrier, all I want in turn is a place to stay and a warm bed, rent-free." Falmercia set out her deal, and Sans had to agree that the deal was fairly reasonable, everyone's freedom for a permanent room wasn't too bad, and it was part of their own contract that they'd be able to keep an eye on her.

"Oh, my! Well, of course, you'd be welcome to stay with me- with us" Asgore corrected himself, gesturing at Chara and Asriel.

"That's what I was hoping for. The last place I stayed the demon hunters attacked and took me away, I doubt they'd be stupid enough to attack the monster king's house." Sans shook his head, even with emotions, Falmercia had multiple layers of thinking going on behind those black eyes.

"So, do we have a deal?" She asked again.

Asgore did not hesitate, "Deal."

The immediately heard the sound of the barrier breaking.


	20. Intermission/Prologue for next arct

**Intermission**

**That is the end of the 'A deal with a demon', the next story is going to be the 'Demons' Revenge' Arc. I will continue to post the next arc on this fic to avoid possible confusion.**

**Sort-of prologue for the next arc:**

a month has passed since us monsters resurfaced. times were difficult at first, chara, who still hated humanity, was not as good of an ambassador as frisk was in the first timeline. luckily for us monsters though, we had a secret weapon that we didn't know we had.

falmercia was surprisingly helpful in assisting the monsters by going through the paperwork and treaties and pointing out flaws and loopholes that the humans could use to exploit us, heh, she even gave asgore pointers on how to convince the humans to accept us. the things that the demon will do to secure a comfortable place to stay.

our biggest selling point turned out to be offering to share the power core supplies, turns out that creating clean sustainable energy is a big problem in the human world. the core doesn't need that much staff to look after it and keep it running, dad and i are more than enough, and with alphys helping out too, we even have time for a few side-experiments.

so, thanks to falmercia pointing out that golden egg of ours, we monsters now live amongst the humans in the human city.

toriel's back, she didn't get along with asgore at first, but for the sake of chara and asriel, she's agreed to give him another chance. she now works as a teacher at the city's best school, which actually takes students from kindergarten to a university level. i've actually heard that she's been nagging falmercia to teach a class there at the start of the next semester on soul magic as part of the school's new magic curriculum, good luck on that one.

falmercia, well since all the treaties got smoothed over hasn't left her room in the dreemurr residence, though she does accept visits from papyrus and occasionally frisk, asriel and myself, something about sloth stained being more tolerable to her.

speaking about my bro, when grillby's moved up to the surface, it became a huge hit, turns out humans love monster food, so for the first time ever grillby needed to hire some help, and because i'm his biggest customer, he agreed to take papyrus in. grillby, of course, is a way better teacher than undyne, so pap's cooking is actually  _really_  good now.

undyne? well, she's obviously still mad at falmercia, can't blame her. she's acting as the royal family's bodyguard at the moment, and even though falmercia refuses to leave her room, the two somehow find ways to clash.

little frisk has been officially adopted by gaster, and now the royal family has been clued into her original deal with falmercia, though with the exception of chara and asriel, we chose to spare them from the tale of the resets, it just would have been too messy.

all three of the kids are going to the same school that toriel teaches at, and she tells me that they're good friends with each other, and asriel and chara actually fight over frisk's attention. seems harmless, but if she gets hurt because of them again they're gonna have a bad time.

everything seems good, but somethings been bothering me. falmercia is still very secretive about her past amongst other things. it wouldn't bother me too much if she didn't seem so… nervous the few times we have managed to get her out of the house. it's almost like she is scared that someone will find her.

which doesn't make sense, because, besides us, everyone that ever had beef against her should be dead a long time now, right?

\- Sans


End file.
